Court lifts stay in TVJ-CVM defamation lawsuit

THE COURT of Appeal has lifted a stay of execution of the judgment against Television Jamaica and CVM Television, which must consequently now pay the $19.5 million in damages awarded by the Supreme Court to People’s National Party councillors Michael Troupe and Sylvan Reid, who filed suits against the companies.

The media entities on December 12, 2019, had been granted a stay of execution of the judgment, but that expired on February 11. Subsequently, they had applied to the court for an extension of the stay, pending the hearing of their respective appeals.

TVJ is a member of the RJRGLEANER Group.

In the ruling delivered last week, Justice Patrick Brooks acknowledged that both media houses demonstrated that there was merit in their appeals. However, he said that they had not shown that they would be irreparably prejudiced by any execution of the judgment.

Brooks also concluded that there was no merit to the media houses’ application that the judgment prevented them from carrying out their responsibility.

The application for the extension of the stay was subsequently denied and the companies ordered to each pay one-half of the men’s legal costs in relation to the application for the stay of the judgment.

Last December, Troupe, councillor for the Granville division in St James, was awarded $11 million in damages for defamation, while Reid, from the Salt Spring division in the parish, will receive $8.5 million in damages for defamation. Reid was awarded a further $1.05 million and $2.45 million with interest for false imprisonment and malicious prosecution, respectively.

In the lawsuits filed in November 2012 and June 2013 against the attorney general, then Police Commissioner Owen Ellington; Senior Superintendent of Police Leon Clunis, then head of the Anti-Lottery Scam Task Force; and Television Jamaica and CVM Television, the men claimed that they were “falsely and maliciously arrested”.

They also claimed that certain untrue words were spoken by the superintendent and the police commissioner, which were broadcast by both free-to-air television stations.

The men’s lawsuits stem from their arrests on the morning of July 18, 2012. On the day in question, the task force, led by Clunis, raided Troupe’s Granville home. Reid was also arrested in one of several simultaneous raids across St James.