DENIS O’BRIEN’S mobile phone group Digicel could have to pay up to £15.5 million in costs to settle a failed legal action against Caribbean rival Cable Wireless Communications following a High Court ruling in Britain yesterday.
The court awarded costs against Digicel and was severely critical of aspects of the company’s legal action.
Cable Wireless issued a statement to the stock market stating that it expects to recover a “substantial majority” of its costs, which it says ran to £15.5 million.
The High Court last week ruled against Digicel’s claim that Cable Wireless had unlawfully delayed its entry as a competitor in the Caribbean telecoms markets. The case was heard over 77 sitting days in London and involved evidence from 43 witnesses.
Digicel issued its proceedings in July 2007, the day before the Cable Wireless annual meeting, and announced that its claim amounted to “several hundreds of millions of pounds” of damages.
In his judgment on costs, Mr Justice Morgan, was critical of aspects of Digicel’s conduct. He said the damages figure quoted in Digicel’s original press statement was “grossly exaggerated”.
The judge said Digicel had also “massively overclaimed” and had “put forward an excessive number of allegations of unlawful acts” in its claim.
Digicel claimed that Cable Wireless had breached the telecoms statutes in six Caribbean territories (Barbados, Cayman, St Lucia, St Vincent the Grenadines, Grenada and the Turks Caicos islands) that it was entering between 2002 and 2006.
Similar allegations were also made against TSTT, the Trinidad Tobago-based telecom operator, in which Cable Wireless holds a minority stake.
The High Court ruled Cable Wireless was entitled to costs in six of the seven jurisdictions. In Trinidad Tobago, the court ruled Digicel should pay 87.5 per cent of recoverable costs, saying that £8 million of the costs should be paid within 28 days.
Digicel said it would “vigorously seek to minimise” Cable Wireless’s/TSTT’s “inflated claim for costs”.
It noted that the judge ordered a reduced liability for costs owed to TSTT, “given that he found that in this market, they or their representatives ‘were guilty of conduct contrary to honest practices’ and ‘called untruthful evidence to support their denial’ at the trial.”
Digicel left open the possibility of an appeal. “We reaffirm our disappointment with the decision . . . and continue to consider our position in this regard.”
