Independent Newspapers is to pay nearly £250,000 in costs for a libel action in which £70,000 damages was paid to a businesswoman, Ms Noelle Campbell-Sharpe. Ms Campbell-Sharpe had sought costs of more than £350,000, a sum reduced to £244,391 by the Taxing Master of the High Court yesterday.
Mr James Flynn made the reduction following a challenge by Independent Newspapers to the £355,374 bill submitted in respect of lawyers who represented Ms Campbell-Sharpe in the action.
In May 1997 she was awarded £70,000 by a High Court jury which found she was libelled in an article by Hugh Leonard published in the Sunday Independent on April 26th, 1992.
The High Court hearing lasted five days. An appeal against the award was later dismissed by the Supreme Court.
The bill of costs for lawyers submitted by Ms Campbell-Sharpe for the High Court proceedings was for £241,358, while the bill for the Supreme Court appeal was £114,016. The Taxing Master allowed £167,114 for the High Court proceedings and £77,277 for the Supreme Court appeal.
An instruction fee of £45,000 claimed by Sheehan & Co, solicitors, Clare Street, Dublin, for the High Court was reduced to £37,000. An instruction fee of £8,000 claimed for the Supreme Court proceedings was reduced to £7,000.
Brief fees of £26,250 each were claimed for two senior counsel, Mr Rex Mackey and Mr Patrick Geraghty, for the High Court case. This sum was cut to £16,800 each by the Taxing Master. A brief fee of £17,500 claimed for a junior counsel, Mr Martin Hayden, was reduced to £11,200.
Refresher fees for the High Court proceedings were claimed for the two senior counsel at £4,200 per day for five days, making a total of £21,000 each. The Taxing Master allowed £3,150 per day for four days, a total of £12,600 each. A claim of £2,800 per day for five days for the junior counsel, totalling £14,000, was reduced to £2,100 for four days, making a total of £8,400.
The claim for written submissions for the Supreme Court case was £4,200 each for the two senior counsel and £2,800 for the junior counsel. The Taxing Master reduced the figures to £3,150 for each of the senior counsel and £2,100 for the junior counsel.
Many of the sums involved in the claim were expressed and allowed as guineas (£1.05) rather than pounds.
Mr Flynn granted a stay of 21 days on his decision in the event of an appeal.