A mining company has said that it will appeal a decision by the Irish supreme court to award a businessman €10m, about £8.5m, in libel damages.
The award, a record in Ireland, came after Donal Kinsella sued Dublin-based Kenmare Resources following allegations made in a company press release. The firm said that they wanted Mr Kinsella to resign after he made inappropriate advances to the company’s secretary Deidre Corcoran while they were on a business trip in Africa. It was suggested that he sleep-walked up to her bedroom door three times while naked and had to be told to go back to his room by the firm’s managing director.
The court was told that Kinsella, a regular somnambulist, had also been drinking and had taken painkillers on the night in question. The firm later consulted a solicitor to investigate the incident. He found that Kinsella, although appearing at her door, had not tried to enter her room and he had since apologised to her.
The firm, in the light of the record payout, is to apply to the supreme court with “a view to setting aside both the verdict and the amount, with the intention of securing a retrial”. The firm added. “The amount of €10m, which was awarded is over five times greater than the previous record amount granted in an Irish defamation case. Kenmare's legal team strongly advise that the award will be set aside on appeal.”
Mr Kinsella called the supreme court’s decision a “magnificent vindication” and said that “the pall of suspicion that hung over my head for the last three years has been removed”.