Hall of Justice, Port of Spain. - File photo by Jeff K Mayers
A HIGH COURT judge has granted an injunction to a businessman featured in a post on the Is This Your Man – T&T and Caribbean? Facebook account.
Justice Margaret Mohammed granted the injunction on October 25.
The judge allowed the businessman to serve the injunction and lawsuit on the administrators of the social media page via Facebook messenger and/or through the page and another account, The Cheater’s Directory.
The court’s order was served on the page’s administrators on October 30. It said the injunction was granted on the businessman's undertaking that if the court finds that its order caused loss to the defendants and decides they should be compensated, he would have to comply with any order the court makes.
The injunction restrains the administrators of the page from “writing, printing, publishing, broadcasting, circulating and/or causing to be circulated, whether by written, printed, or any medium whatsoever including but not limited to Facebook and/or any social media whatsoever, or otherwise defaming and/or publishing defamatory content relating to the claimant and/or his business. It also restrains them from keeping up the post about the businessman and his business.
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The businessman has asked for his name not to be published because of the distress he has suffered through the publication on the social media account.
His application was filed by his attorneys Joseph Sookoo and Kamini Ramraj.It said the page had “obtained an infamous reputation” for naming and shaming Caribbean men via allegations by named and unnamed sources, for conduct including infidelity, debt and/or criminal activity.
The publication which featured the businessman also referred to his business and made certain allegations against him.
“It is clear that the post, for the meanings attributed to it and described, is defamatory in nature.
“Since the publication of this said post, his clients and business partners have been contacting him and expressing various opinions which have affected the business relationships and jeopardised company contracts which he relies on.”
It also said while the page’s administrators refused to identify the source of the material for the post, he believed it was a woman with whom he had had a short relationship and who was unhappy when he ended it.
The application also denied all the allegations made in the post. His lawyers also asked for the post to be taken down, but the application said the pre-action correspondence was instead published with assertions that they “intended to continue publishing and inviting comments.”His lawsuit said, “The claimant has become distressed and ashamed to venture out in the community and meet with business associates and the public.
“He feels that he is an object of scorn and ridicule."
The businessman is claiming damages, aggravated and exemplary, on the basis that the administrators of the pages deliberately made and/or published defamatory statements despite ignoring the risk that they may be false and sought to maximise the damage and distress inflicted on the claimant while profiting off the increased and/or continued viewership of the page.
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“They also refused to withdraw the post, mocked the claimant and his attorneys.”
An affidavit filed on October 18, in support of the injunction application said the original page could not be found, but a group had been created with the same name.
The businessman used a friend’s profile to gain access to it and saw an announcement that the Facebook page was suspended temporarily but administrators were actively working on creating a new forum.
A link was then provided to a page named Is this your man – T&T and the Caribbean/The Cheater’s Directory, with photos and screenshots of posts from the disabled page. These were attached to the lawsuit.
