Senior Counsel Rajendra Poonai has been awarded judgment against Kaieteur News for libel that he said defamed his character.
The judgment was made by Justice Fidela Corbin-Lincoln following an application by Poonai for judgment in default of defence after the National Media and Publishing Company Ltd and editor Adam Harris, the first and third named respondents in the lawsuit, respectively, failed to file their defences to his claim by the stipulated deadline.
Glen Lall, proprietor of the newspaper, is named as the second respondent.
The court could still set aside a judgment on its own initiative, or upon an application by one of the defendants. Such an application would have to be made within 28 days of the date the judgment was served on the defendants. They would also have to provide a good explanation for their failure to file the defence, and attach a draft of the proposed defence to the application to set aside.
Poonai had asked the court for $30 million for libelous publication, and an additional $15 million for exemplary and aggravated damages, and interest. However, according to the court order seen by Stabroek News yesterday, the amount he will actually receive will be assessed by the court at a later date.
Toward this determination, the Senior Counsel is required, by Friday September 20th, 2019, to file witness statements and submissions on which he will rely to support the damages he has claimed. These filings are intended to allow the court to examine and determine whether the damages asked for are justifiable.
The court has also awarded Poonai injunctions restricting Kaieteur News, its servants, or agents from recreating and disseminating the information which is the subject of the suit, and compelling the newspaper to remove the front page on which the story is prominently featured for May 23rd from its online site, or, if this is not possible, to permanently remove the entire paper.
Poonai filed the lawsuit in response to a May 23rd publication in the Kaieteur News, titled, ‘Attorney convicted of fraud in Canada appointed senior Counsel’, which erroneously asserted that Poonai had been convicted of fraud in Canada. The headline featured prominently on the newspaper’s front page. Kaieteur News eventually published an apology.
In his suit, Poonai said that as a prominent and well-respected attorney-at-law practising in Guyana for 30 years, he was distressed and embarrassed by the erroneous article.
He also said that he has large clientele locally and internationally, and that he is of the view that the erroneous article, which sought to convey that he has a criminal past which includes imprisonment, and therefore unfit to appointed Senior Counsel, caused, and continued to cause significant harm to his good name, reputation.
He said that following the publication, he was inundated with phone calls and messages across several electronic media platforms from relatives, associates and acquaintances concerning the publication and whether it was true.
Poonai is being represented by a battery of attorneys, including Robin Stoby S.C., Rafiq Khan S.C., Stephen Fraser S.C., Glenn Hanoman, Sohan Poonai, Naresh Poonai and Everton Singh-Lammy.
