Former Trinidad PM Stuart Young wins defamation case against Trinidad Express

Former Stuart Young has successfully defended a defamation ruling against Trinidad Express, with the Court of Appeal affirming an award of more than TT$500,000 (approximately J$11.5 million) in damages.

In a judgment delivered Friday, appellate judges Nolan Bereaux, James Aboud and Mark Mohammed dismissed the newspaper’s appeal, upholding an earlier ruling in Young’s favour.

Writing the decision, Bereaux said trial judge Betsy Ann Lambert-Peterson made no error in finding liability or in the overall damages awarded.

The case stemmed from a two-page advertisement published on September 7, 2017, while Young was serving as a Cabinet minister. The advertisement, paid for by a group identified as “Concerned Citizens of T&T,” accused him of misconduct linked to the Public Transport Service Corporation.

The Trinidad Express later acknowledged publishing the advertisement but said it did not know the identity of the client behind it.

However, the Court of Appeal ruled that the newspaper could not rely on legal defences such as reportage or qualified privilege. Bereaux noted that such protections apply to responsible journalism carried out in the public interest — not paid advertisements — particularly where the publisher knew the claims were false.

He also pointed out that the allegations contained in the advertisement had already been debunked in prior reporting by the newspaper itself.

On damages, the court upheld TT$375,000 in general damages but clarified the treatment of additional compensation. Bereaux ruled that the trial judge had improperly combined aggravated and exemplary damages into a single award.

He determined that the additional TT$125,000 should stand as exemplary damages alone, though he described the amount as being at the higher end of the scale.

The ruling leaves the overall award intact, bringing the total damages affirmed by the Court of Appeal to more than TT$500,000.