Facts first, Hagaman tells court
The wife of a hotel owner suing Labour leader Andrew Little for defamation has dismissed a suggestion he was simply doing his public duty, saying he should have got his facts straight before commenting publicly.
Lani Hagaman, the wife of Scenic Hotel Group founder Earl Hagaman, was cross-examined by Little’s counsel John Tizard on the second morning of a civil jury trial.
The Hagamans are seeking $2.3 million in damages for comments Little made about a $101,000 donation they made to the National Party during the 2014 election, and a contract their Scenic Hotel Group won a month later to manage the Matavai resort in Niue, which receives government funding.
In evidence, Lani Hagaman said Scenic Hotel Group managing director Brendan Taylor was the primary person exploring opportunities in Niue and entering negotiations, while she was heavily involved in the final terms of the contract.
‘‘Anyone who knows Scenic and knows me knows that Scenic is my baby, it has always been considered my baby.’’
The Matavai contract did not offer great financial benefits to Scenic Hotel Group, but was a chance to have another hotel in the Pacific islands, she said.
Her husband Earl would have been aware of the opportunity but did not read the management contract or get heavily involved, as that was not his role and he was ‘‘very comfortable’’ with her making decisions.
‘‘Earl didn’t know where Niue was on a map. I had to get the atlas out and point it out to him.’’
She said Little ‘‘should have got his facts sorted’’ before making comments about the hotel contract, as one phone call to Scenic Hotel Group would have clarified the situation.
The couple had welcomed Little’s calls for the auditorgeneral to investigate as ‘‘I would have welcomed anyone that could clear our name’’. Asked by Tizard whether she accepted that people thought there was a ‘‘suspicion’’ and the only way to clear it was through an investigation, Lani Hagaman said her problem was not with an investigation, but linking their name to corruption.
‘‘Why did he not get the facts first, why did he come out and label us as corrupt, shady, murky, all those horrible words?’’
While Little had said the Government, rather than the Hagamans, were the main target of his comments, it was the couple who had been badly affected.
‘‘[Foreign Minister] Murray Mccully was not the one who was put through the ringer, it was Earl Hagaman.’’
Little has been sued for defamation over a written statement issued to media on April 18, in which he said the donation and subsequent contract award ‘‘stink to high heaven’’, followed by five comments to individual media outlets making similar remarks.