Dr Leslie Ramsammy has succeeded in getting the default judgment that was granted against him in a libel suit brought by former General Manager of the National Communications Network (NCN) Enrico Woolford set aside.
The Full Court, comprising Justice Gino Persaud and Justice Priya Sewnarine-Beharry, ruled in Ramsammy’s favour in a judgment delivered on Thursday.
Ramsammy, Advisor to the Minister of Health, had appealed the ruling of High Court Judge Fidela Corbin-Lincoln, who had refused his application to set aside the default judgment that was granted against him. Ramsammy sought to have the judgment set aside as he claimed that he was unaware of Woolford’s action against him since he had never been personally served.
Justice Corbin-Lincoln had granted Woolford judgment in default after Ramsammy’s failure to file a defence. In her ruling in March this year, when she refused to set aside the judgment, the judge also said that the obligation to show that a defence has real prospects of success was also not satisfied by him in the draft defence he had submitted. Additionally, the judge said that an applicant must not only exhibit a draft defence but must also file an affidavit setting out the evidence being relied on, in support of the application.
In the Full Court judgment, Justice Persaud agreed with Justice Corbin-Lincoln that Ramsammy did not provide a reasonable explanation for his failure to file a defence. However, he also pointed out that there are limited exceptions to the requirement to file an affidavit of merit and added that he viewed defamation cases as being one exception. “An important object if not a crucial factor for consideration in defamation matters is damage to reputation and vindication of reputation. This can be easily undermined if a default judgment in a defamation claim is allowed to stand. It will be said that there was or might have been evidence available to support the defence/s pleaded but the Court refused to admit it without addressing the merits of the defence. The appellant has pleaded in his draft defence that his statements were true and fair comment inter alia. It is thus in the interests of both sides that the defences pleaded should be properly addressed,” he argued.
The judge also noted that Ramsammy’s co-defendants in the suit, the Guyana Times newspaper and the Times Media Group, were defending the claim and complied with the requirement to file a defence. “It would in my mind be illogical to proceed to a trial with additional defendants defending the claim while a default judgment stands against the first defendant/appellant. What happens if the additional defendants are able to successfully defend the defamation claim? This could ultimately lead to an inconsistent outcome which would not be in anyone’s interests, least of all the interests of justice,” he contended.
Justice Persaud further highlighted a “public interest dimension” raised in Ramsammy’s draft defence, where he claimed that the words complained of by Woolford were an expression of his honestly held opinion and were fair comment upon a matter of public interest, being the controversial 2020 national elections. “Matters of public interest should be investigated at trial,” the judge noted.
Citing the overriding objective of dealing with cases justly under the Civil Procedure Rules and case authorities, Justice Persaud held that it would be in the interests of justice to allow the appellant to file his defence and defend the claim for defamation. “Civil procedure is a handmaiden of justice not its master,” he added.
As a result, the Full Court allowed the appeal, ordered Ramsammy to file his defence by December 9 and remitted the matter to the trial judge for case management.
Attorney Nirvan Singh appeared for Ramsammy, while Eusi Anderson appeared for Woolford.
Early last year, Woolford sued Ramsammy, the Guyana Times newspaper and the Times Media Group jointly and severally, seeking in excess of $185 million in total for libelous statements about him that he said were contained in a column by Ramsammy that was published by the Guyana Times newspaper on March 18, 2020, under the headline “Ramsammy’s Ruminations: Caricom, ABCE, Commonwealth, OAS – time for sanctions now, no more patience.”
