News In Focus
9 February 2007
Footballer allowed to accept defamation offer late
Rangers footballer Craig Moore can claim damages for defamation from the Daily Record, a court has ruled, despite the newspaper arguing that he had lost his right by failing to accept their offer of amends in time.
Mr Moore brought his action after being wrongly identified by the Record as having racially abused a taxi driver. The paper ultimately accepted liability and in June 2005 made an offer of amends under the Defamation Act 1996. This involves publishing a sufficient correction and apology, and paying such damages as may be agreed or determined.
Instead of accepting the offer, Mr Moore raised an action of damages in October 2005, but 14 months later, after various procedural steps had taken place, lodged a minute purporting to accept the offer.
The defenders argued that it was too late to accept the offer by then, and because the offer had been made, further proceedings were barred under the Act. But Lady Paton in the Court of Session ruled that in order for the defenders to rely on the offer, the Act required it to remain open for acceptance, and the sanction against late acceptance was a possible order in expenses against the pursuer.
"The statutory scheme obliges a defender to maintain (i.e. to hold out, and not to withdraw) the offer of amends upon which he intends to rely for his section 4(2) defence", she said. "It will be seen therefore that I am not persuaded that, on a proper construction of the statute, it is appropriate to apply the common law rule that rejection of an offer causes that offer to fall or to cease to exist."
The judge also commented: "Further it is my view that if a defender or a court were to seek to impose a time limit such that the offer of amends was no longer being held out and was no longer in existence at the time when the defender sought to rely upon the defence in section 4, then that defence would not be available to the defender."
She ruled that Mr Moore, having accepted the offer, was barred from continuing his action, and allowed the defenders time to answer his minute of acceptance.
Lady Paton's decision can be read at http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/opinions/2007CSOH24.html .