An appeal by Independent Newspapers against a High Court decision awarding an estimated €100,000 in costs against the company to a District Court judge libelled in a Sunday Independentarticle was dismissed today by the Supreme Court.
District Judge Joseph Mangan was awarded €25,000 in damages after a High Court jury found in February 2002 he was libelled in a front page article in the Sunday Independent, written by journalist Gene Kerrigan and published in March 1998.
The jury held the article, which referred to the Judge taking a call on a mobile phone, bore the defamatory meaning that Judge Mangan had acted in a manner inconsistent with the proper discharge of his judicial functions.
The High Court granted costs on the Circuit Court scale to Judge Mangan against Independent Newspapers for the case which had been heard over seven days.
Giving the Supreme Court's reserved judgment, Mr Justcie McCracken said the High Court had correctly limited the costs of Judge Mangan to Circuit Court costs.
He noted Independent Newspapers had argued the costs should have been limited to a three day hearing on the basis that, if the case had been heard in the Circuit Court, it would have been heard by a judge alone within that period.
Counsel for Independent Newspapers had argued that, in awarding seven days costs, Judge Mangan was securing more costs than he would have been entitled to had the action been heard in the Circuit Court (as the newspaper argued it should given the damages ultimately awarded fell below the Circuit Court maximum).