The owner of a news website that has come under fire in recent years for the quality of its journalism has been ordered to pay $20,000 in a defamation ruling that could serve as a precedent for future cases against media outlets in the territory.
Virgin Islands News Online owner Julian Willock must pay $20,000 in damages and $1,800 in court costs for defaming Dr. Hubert O’Neal in a 2012 article, a judicial master ordered this month.
The claim
On Feb. 15, 2012, Dr. O’Neal, an ophthalmologist and veteran political candidate, filed suit against VINO parent company Advance Marketing and Professional Services, and Carmelita Jamieson, the website’s then editor, who has since left the organisation.
Dr. O’Neal claimed that a Dec. 15, 2011 article inaccurately reported on a lawsuit involving Amos O’Neal’s estate and the company Robinson O’Neal Enterprises Limited, of which Dr. O’Neal is a shareholder.
According to Dr. O’Neal, he was not contacted for his side of the story prior to the publication of the article, which he said mischaracterised the lawsuit: Though the suit was an action taken by the company ROEL, he said, the article portrayed it as one he filed personally against his niece.
‘Distress and embarrassment’
The errors, and the 11 comments posted below the article, caused “considerable distress and embarrassment” to Dr. O’Neal, his subsequent lawsuit claimed.
This month, Master Georgis Taylor-Alexander agreed, according to a “decision of assessment of damages” filed with the court on Nov. 13.
“The claimant says the comments from the bloggers prove that he was lowered in the minds of the ordinary right thinking members of the society,” the assessment stated. “In this case, the article was untrue and was published with the intention of causing damage to the character of the claimant and to attack his personal integrity.”
Dr. O’Neal had sought $45,000 in damages, but he said in an interview last Thursday that he was satisfied with the $20,000 result. The errors and comments impugned his character and credibility, he said.
“You try to live your life as a good citizen and you try to do the right thing, and for someone to just publish a totally erroneous statement like that it hurts,” he added. “It hurts not just personally but it hurts my family, it hurts everyone I’m associated with.”
Damage assessment
The assessment of damages came after another judicial master, Charlesworth Tabor, granted Dr. O’Neal a default judgment against Mr. Willock and AMPS on Sept. 25. 2012 because the defendants failed to file required documents before an Aug. 23, 2012 court-mandated deadline.
Mr. Smith, who did not represent the defendants at the time, later attempted to challenge the default judgment during a January 2013 sitting of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court of Appeal, but he withdrew his application after justices implied during a hearing that it would not be successful.
The default judgment stands, but during a Tuesday phone interview Mr. Smith said he believes the defendants would have prevailed at trial.
“Without a doubt. It was completely frivolous. They won it on a technicality,” Mr. Smith said of Dr. O’Neal and his lawyers at the firm McTodman and Co.
A “misunderstanding” that occurred while Mr. Willock was unrepresented by legal counsel led to the issuance of the default judgment, Mr. Smith explained.
He added that his client intends to appeal the assessment of damages to the ECSCA and the London-based Privy Council, the territory’s final court of appeal, if “we have to.”
Though Ms. Jamieson, VINO’s former editor, is listed as a defendant in the lawsuit, Mr. Smith said that the default judgment was not entered in respect to her and she is not subject to the decision of assessment of damages. She did not respond to requests seeking comment for this article.
An interview request e-mailed Monday to VINO and Mr. Willock was met later that day with an e-mail from Mr. Smith, who spoke about the lawsuit on Mr. Willock’s behalf on Tuesday but referred questions about the news site’s operations to VINO’s management and Mr. Willock.
Subsequent e-mails to Mr. Willock and John E. Leonard, a man described by VINO as the news site’s general manager, were not responded to as of the Beacon’s print deadline yesterday.
Reached by phone yesterday morning, Mr. Willock said he was in a meeting and hung up after this reporter identified himself. Subsequent attempts to contact him by phone were unsuccessful.
Damage award
In determining the amount of damages to award Dr. O’Neal, Ms. Taylor-Alexander considered the errors made in the article, the resulting comments, and VINO’s circulation, a figure that was referenced but not disclosed in court documents.
“No doubt, I agree that the publication has the capability of very wide reach, to millions as it were, but I temper that potential damage with the sobering question of whether millions cared, such that, despite the potential of the web page to reach the whole world, the site would only be accessed by those who had a particular interest in the local affairs of the island,” the master wrote in the decision.
Ms. Taylor-Alexander accepted that the errors and comments damaged Dr. O’Neal’s reputation. But the master wrote that there was “seemingly little impact” to the candidate’s political career, because the 2011 election had ended weeks prior.
Dr. O’Neal, a National Democratic Party candidate who has made four unsuccessful bids to represent the Ninth District, was defeated in 2011 by Virgin Islands Party legislator and current Opposition Leader Ralph O’Neal by a 28-vote margin.
The master also noted that the article and comments seemed unlikely to damage Dr. O’Neal’s medical practice.
“This is not to undermine the fact of the publication and its presumption of damage,” she added.
Lawyer’s view
Asked how the errors came to be published in the 2011 article, Mr. Smith said he believes the main issue was in the headline and what he described as “certain minor changes” to the article, which were addressed within hours of publication after Dr. O’Neal alerted the news site.
Since VINO began operations in 2010, several political candidates, NDP politicians and community leaders have spoken out publicly to criticise the accuracy and objectivity of the site’s journalism, which VINO has vigorously defended. Asked to respond to such criticisms, Mr. Smith deferred comment to Mr. Willock.
“Those criticisms are business issues that I have nothing to do with,” he said. “They are not legal issues.”
In Dr. O’Neal’s case, the initial errors in the story were compounded by Mr. Willock’s refusal to retract the story and apologise publicly, the doctor said.
“He did in fact write an apology, but it was unacceptable to us, and that’s why we went further with the suit,” Dr. O’Neal said.
The wording of the apology didn’t seem sufficiently contrite, he explained, adding that he still would like to see an apology published.
According to the master’s assessment, the parties talked about an apology being posted on the site but never came to an agreement.
“But in any event, any genuine attempt at an apology was thwarted by a later article appearing in the Virgin Islands newspaper (sic) by the first defendant, who sought to stand by his original article,” Ms. Taylor-Alexander wrote.
Mr. Smith said that the master didn’t give sufficient weight to the fact that an apology was offered, an issue that will be raised in the appeal. He declined to supply this newspaper with a copy of the apology, citing a reluctance to “try the case in the court of public opinion.”
He added, though, that the site believes the comments posted below the story were fairly published given Dr. O’Neal’s candidacy.
“He was a political figure. He put himself out there. He needs to have a thicker skin,” the lawyer said, adding, “People are entitled to say things about their politicians.”
Precedent?
Though court records indicate that VI residents have filed defamation suits against online media outlets in at least two other instances in recent years, the VINO case appears to be the first against an online site that has resulted in a damage assessment, according to a Beacon search of court records.
Newspapers, radio broadcasters and television stations also have been successfully sued in the past or settled out of court, but Dr. O’Neal said he believes this case is a first for the online media.
“However, though, the message that I want to deliver, not just to the online media, but to media generally in the BVI, is that you need to get your facts straight before you publish something, because it seriously damages someone’s credibility,” he said.