Mining firm to begin appeal of record €10m libel payout

A MINING company is to begin its appeal tomorrow against a €10million libel action taken by one of its executives – the largest libel award in the history of the State.

Donal Kinsella, 73, won his libel case against his employer Kenmare Resources eight years ago.

He sued over a company press release that wrongly implied that he made inappropriate advances to a female colleague, when in fact Mr Kinsella had been sleepwalking.

The married father-of-six only ever received a €500,000 interim payout following the High Court jury’s verdict in 2010, pending the firm’s appeal against the overall eight-figure award. The €9.5million balance has remained on hold since then.

Mr Kinsella, from Dunleer, Co. Louth, claimed his life was made a misery as the offending press release made him a ‘national and international laughing stock’.

Although Kenmare sought a review swiftly after the 2010 verdict, it has been dogged by delays due to the overall volume of cases waiting to be heard in the Court of Appeal.

The previous Court of Appeal president, Seán Ryan, said in June of last year that he was ‘embarrassed’ about the hold-ups.

Tomorrow, three judges will begin hearing Kenmare’s appeal.

Jurors ordered the huge payout in 2010 after concluding that Kenmare’s press release wrongly implied the businessman had acted inappropriately to company secretary Deirdre Corcoran during a trip to Mozambique. Mr Kinsella was ‘in the habit of sleepwalking’ and was wearing no pyjamas when he sleepwalked three times in one night, jurors were told.

It was alleged that during the night, he approached and opened the bedroom doors of various co-workers, including Ms Corcoran. He did not enter anyone’s bedroom.

The subsequent press release did not detail the sleepwalking incident and Mr Kinsella’s lawyers argued the firm’s statement implied Mr Kinsella had done something wrong.