The Court of Appeal reduced the damages awarded to Padraig Higgins in his defamation case against the Irish Aviation Authority from €387,000 to €76,500 and made no order as to the costs of the appeal.
In a judgment delivered on 9 October 2020, Mr Justice Murray said neither side had been entirely successful in the appeal. The court had earlier set aside the jury’s awards of €300,000 in general compensatory damages and €130,000 in aggravated damages, substituting awards of €70,000 and €15,000 respectively. After the 10% reduction for the Authority’s offer of amends, the total award was €76,500.
The Authority had sought a further reduction and an increase in the discount for its offer of amends. It obtained a substantial reduction in the damages but did not persuade the court to remove aggravated damages or increase the discount. Higgins failed to preserve the jury’s award or secure a new jury hearing.
Both parties argued that they had won the appeal for costs purposes. The Authority relied on a written settlement offer dated 14 April, which proposed that Higgins retain €100,001, keep the High Court costs order, and that each side bear its own appeal costs. Higgins did not respond. The court found the offer was made late and did not include payment of costs he had already incurred. It therefore could not support an order requiring him to pay the Authority’s appeal costs.
The court also rejected Higgins’s argument that the offer set a new threshold entitling him to appeal costs because the award plus costs exceeded €100,001. Murray J said Higgins could have made his own offer or counter-offer to protect his costs but had not done so.
The court concluded that no order as to appeal costs was the fairest allocation. It said the appeal had been presented efficiently and that the issues could not reliably be separated for a costs split. The court made no finding on Higgins’s submissions about the Authority’s conduct in the underlying case, saying both sides had acted reasonably and properly in pursuing the appeal.
The formal order allowed the appeal, substituted €76,500 as the award, and directed that Higgins recover the costs of the High Court proceedings, including any reserved costs, based on the reduced award. Noonan J and Binchy J agreed.