PAY UP OR ELSE

PRIVY COUNCIL ORDERS LINTON TO PAY PINARD-BYRNE £20,000 2/1/2016   Lennox Linton Dominica News Online - The London-based Privy Council has ordered Opposition Leader, Lennox Linton to pay chartered accountant Kieron Pinard-Byrne £20, 000 in court costs stemming from a defamation case. The judgment was delivered on January 29 and Linton has 21 days from the date of the order to pay the sum. According to the order, Linton must pay Pinard-Byrne the “costs before the Judicial Committee, the amount of those costs to be assessed on the standard basis if not agreed between the parties.” Additionally, the “Respondent pay the Appellant’s costs in Court of Appeal of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (Commonwealth of Dominica), the amount of those costs to be assessed on the standard basis if not agreed between the parties.” Recently Linton was ordered to pay Pinard-Byrne $79,324.86 in the same matter by the High Court in Dominica. The matter centers around the Layou River Economic Citizenship Program and the Layou River Hotel project and goes back to 2002 when Pinard-Byrne sued Linton because of an article published on the program on a website and statements made about the same program on a radio show, on which Linton was a guest. According to Pinard-Byrne, he was libeled by Linton. In March 2011 the High Court in Dominica ruled in favor of Pinard-Byrne. The matter was taken to the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC) in March 2013 and the High Court’s decision was reversed with a ruling in Linton’s favor. The ECSC, in its ruling, said its decision was based on ‘qualified privilege.’ Qualified privilege gives the press some level of immunity from defamation charges for statements made in good faith, unless it can be proven it was done with malice. Immediately after the ruling, Pinard-Bryne’s attorney, Tony Astaphan, took the matter to the Privy Council since, according to him, the ECSC’s ruling had narrowed the issue of qualified privilege ‘much too much.’ When the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court of Appeal met in Dominica in March 2014, the judges granted leave to Pinard-Byrne to take the matter to the Privy Council after Astaphan said his client had fully complied with all the rules as laid down by the court of appeal. The Privy Council ruled in favor of Pinard-Byrne late last year. ​ It was the final case to be heard by the Privy Council since Dominica has made the Caribbean Court of Justice its final appellate court.