A 38-year-old former computer software purchaser with Dell Products, Limerick, has been awarded £25,000 damages and costs for defamation against a computer trade magazine and its printer.
Mr Tony Aston SC, for Mr Eamonn Courtney, formerly of Cappaclahen, Kilkishen, Co Clare, told Dublin Circuit Civil Court that his client had been defamed in an article in Advance Manufacturing Technology (AMT) magazine following his dismissal from Dell Products in 1994.
Mr Aston, who appeared with Mr Anthony Barr, said Mr Courtney had been suspended and later dismissed when Dell Products learned he had confirmed to one of the company's suppliers, Motorola in Scotland, that Dell Products had breached a contractual agreement to use Motorola's products exclusively for its own use and not to sell them on. Mr Courtney, in evidence, said Motorola, through an English source, already knew of the breach of contract. He had confirmed it as part of negotiations with Motorola seeking to have them continue supplying Dell with software vital to production of personal computers at its Raheen factory.
Mr Aston, in his outline of the case, told the court it would be satisfied AMT magazine had defamed Mr Courtney by stating he, although not specifically identified by name in the article, had been dismissed for materials theft, which was unfounded.
Judge Elizabeth Dunne heard that Mr Courtney had been unable to obtain employment in Ireland and had settled an unfair dismissals claim which he took against Dell Products in the Employment Appeals Tribunal for £8,000. He had to go to an American company, First Tech, to find employment and was now managing director of its European subsidiary in Lanarkshire, Scotland, where he now lived.
Judge Dunne held, on the evidence of colleagues in the industry, that Mr Courtney had clearly been identified as the person referred to in the article. She said the question of his employment or non-employment was not the real issue in the case. What had to be protected was his reputation. To accuse someone in a position of trust, who was handling huge quantities of materials, was an extremely serious libel.
She awarded Mr Courtney £25,000 damages, apportioning liability 80 per cent against Electronic Report Ltd., Lower Hatch Street, Dublin, publishers of the magazine, and 20 per cent against Temple Printing Co Ltd., Northgate Street, Athlone, Co Westmeath.