Aer Lingus pilot awarded €202,500 damages after earlier payout slashed on appeal

The Supreme Court has provided guidance concerning defamation damages in an important judgment awarding an Aer Lingus pilot E202,500 over defamatory and false emails sent about him by the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA). By a four to one majority, the court granted Captain Padraig Higgins’ appeal against a decision by the Court of Appeal (CoA) which slashed to E76,500 a High Court jury’s award to him of E387,000 damages. The judgment concerns existing defamation law and does not address the Government’s proposals for reform of the law, including to abolish juries in defamation cases, but the judges observations may inform the amendment of the law. The observations include comments about defects, particularly the absence of time limits, with the ‘offer of amends’ procedure set out in the 2009 Defamation Act which was aimed at avoiding litigation. The majority court concluded Capt Higgins was entitled to E175,000 general damages and E50,000 aggravated damages over three emails sent by the authority in 2013, which it admitted were defamatory. Having applied a 10% discount in light of an offer of amends from the authority, the total award came to E202,500.<br/>