Tracey v Independent Newspapers (Ireland) Ltd

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Court: Supreme Court
• Judge: Mr. Justice John MacMenamin
• Judgment Date: 30 July 2019
• Neutral Citation: [2019] IESC 68
• Date: 30 July 2019
• Docket Number: [Supreme Court Record No. 456/2011] [High Court Record No. 2008/11103P]

BETWEEN:

KEVIN TRACEY

PLAINTIFF/APPELLANT

V.

INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS (IRELAND) LIMITED, GERRY O'REGAN, STEPHEN REA

AND

TIM HEALY

DEFENDANTS/RESPONDENTS

[2019] IESC 68

MacMenamin J.

MacMenamin J.

Dunne J.

Peart J.

[Supreme Court Record No. 456/2011]

[Court of Appeal Record No. 2014/325]

[High Court Record No. 2008/11103P]

THE SUPREME COURT

High Court order – Re-hearing – Article – Appellant seeking to appeal against High Court order – Whether the High Court’s order should stand

Facts: An article was published in the Evening Herald on 17th September, 2004 headed “Silly Incident: Judge uses Probation of Offenders Act, 1907 after row over street football”. The appellant, Mr Tracey, pleaded the article was false and malicious, and falsely stated he had been convicted of assault. Mr Tracey pleaded that the article contained extraneous matters which have nothing to do with the case of assault brought against him, and which was dismissed under the Probation of Offenders Act 1907. He submitted that the newspaper interlaced its reportage of the case at hand with several references to the extraneous matters. He said that to aggravate the injury, it was also stated in the article that he was convicted of assaulting another neighbour, when the 1907 Act was applied.

Held by the Supreme Court (MacMenamin J) that, for the same reasons set out in Tracey v Irish Times Limited & Others, High Court Record No. 2008/11101P, Supreme Court Record No. 454/2011, the President of the High Court erred in that regard, that the appeal be allowed, and the motion remitted to the High Court for hearing. MacMenamin J held that the same observations as were made in the Irish Times judgment as to the rights and entitlements of the parties were also applicable in this case, as they were in each of the defamation appeals, identified in the Irish Times judgment.

MacMenamin J held that he would remit the matter to the High Court for re-hearing.

Appeal allowed.

Judgment of Mr. Justice John MacMenamin dated the 30th day of July, 2019

Background

1 This judgment should be read in conjunction with the judgment delivered today in proceedings entitled Kevin Tracey, plaintiff/appellant v. Irish Times Limited, Geraldine Kennedy & Eoin McVeigh, defendants, High Court Record No. 2008/ 11101P, Supreme Court Record No. 454/2011. The appeal relates to an article published in the Evening Herald on Friday, 17th September, 2004. The article, accompanied by a photograph, was printed on an inside page of the Evening Herald. It was headed ‘Silly Incident: Judge uses Probation of Offenders Act, 1907 after row over street football’. Beneath that was the sub-heading ‘Assault by noise action neighbour’. The text of the article read:

‘A man who last year took a noise nuisance action against his neighbour, Circuit Court Judge Michael White, has been convicted of...