$100k offer to settle Hagaman claim rejected
Labour leader Andrew Little upped his offer from $26,000 to $100,000 in a last-minute bid to settle the defamation claim against him by hoteliers Earl and Lani Hagaman but Mrs Hagaman rejected it as too little and too late.
Little’s offer was revealed in Mrs Hagaman’s evidence at the High Court in Wellington, during which she read out letters between lawyers for the two.
The Hagamans are now seeking more than $2 million in damages from Little over comments he made last year about a $100,000 donation from the Hagamans to the National Party in 2014 and a contract later awarded to their hotel chain — Scenic Hotel — to manage the Matavai resort in Niue.
At the time, the Hagamans gave Little a deadline to apologise and retract his comments, but he refused. Mrs Hagaman said at that point, all the Hagamans wanted was an apology and “minimal” costs: “just a couple of legal letters”.
Mrs Hagaman said in February this year, Little offered the wording of an apology $26,000.
In response the Hagamans said although they “have no wish to destroy Mr Little by rendering him insolvent”, a more realistic offer was needed.
His return offer of $100,000 was also rejected.
Mrs Hagaman said Little’s comments had associated them with an apparent scandal which had damaged the Hagamans’ reputation and and that of their hotels.
Mr Hagaman was now very ill and had been given only weeks to live and Mrs Hagaman said she decided to go ahead with the defamation suit to clear his name before he died.
She said the hotel business was not discussed when the donation was made to National Party President Peter Goodfellow.
The Hagamans are suing over six separate statements Little made, one in a press release and the rest in media interviews after that.
In those, Little had questioned whether there was a link between the donation and the Matavai contract which was awarded to Scenic Hotel soon afterwards, as well as a $7.5 million Government aid fund to upgrade the resort at a later date.
The comments the Hagamans claim amount to defamation include phrases such as: “it looks murky from the outside, it looks shad,” “stink to high heaven”, “there’s just something about this whole deal that really stinks” and reference to National Party’s “dodgy deals” such as SkyCity and the agrihub in Saudi Arabia.
The trial will continue today.