Former West Indies leg-spinner Dinanath Ramnarine has been awarded TT$831,823.65 (US$133,000) in damages after a High Court found he was defamed on social media platform Facebook in 2016 by a businessman and cricket administrator in Trinidad and Tobago.
Master Martha Alexander in a ruling against Rafi Ali, who was an appointed member of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB), ordered him to pay 46-year-old Ramnarine, who played for the regional team between 1997-2002 , the sum of TT$775,000 in damages, plus interest and an additional TT$56,823.65 in legal fees.
Ramnarine, the former president and chief executive of the West Indies Players Association (WIPS), sued Ali after he posted a comment on his Facebook page while Ramnarine served as chairman of the Board of Directors at the Trinidad and Tobago Sports Company.
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In the ruling, the court noted that Ali also sent e-mails to TTCB members and republished a Facebook post inserting his comment “to demonstrate his malice and malice” towards Ramnarine.
Master Alexander said Ali acted deliberately, with derision and malice and in ordering compensation she said would “serve to warn any defendant who uses Facebook or any other social media platform to defame and destroy the reputation of a the claimant that he will feel the punitive arm of the court acting to deter such conduct.”
She said that Ali’s Facebook defamation was staged to destroy Dinanath Ramnarine’s reputation and that the court should send a message “that such wanton abuse of social media platforms must be stopped.
“The defendant before this court will not be permitted to use Facebook to increase his popularity at the expense of the plaintiff or to ‘sell another man’s reputation for profit.’
“If a defendant’s sport of choice is Facebook defamation, then the consequences of such virtual sports defamation must burn the defendant’s pockets to achieve deterrence. This would act as a punishment to this defendant and a deterrent to him and others that defamation on Facebook is no sport in which to engage.”
The court ruled that Ramnarine had “huge footprints both locally and regionally” and, as a sports personality, he had a presence and contributed to the governance and development of the sports of cricket and football.
“This is not a claimant who is an unknown, voiceless or non-contributing participant in the sporting arena. This is a claimant whose name is widely known; is respected around the world and whose contribution to the world of sports is indisputable.”
Master Alexander said the “confident dissemination” of defamation on Facebook was common for users of the platform who “must be presumed to know and intend to spread the defamation worldwide”.
She said Facebook defamation was a burgeoning platform for any defendant “who wants to act with impunity by ignoring numerous court warnings to Facebook users to desist from online character assassinations because of the far-reaching consequences of defamation” and in Ramnarine’s case, the defamatory materials “were offensive, scandalous and intended to injure” by sending them to millions of people.
She said Ali, as a member of the T&T Cricket Board, would have benefited from tarnishing Ramnarine’s reputation for integrity and professionalism.
“A defamed person cannot hide or escape the defamation on Facebook, as it follows him in his home, behind closed doors and everywhere he goes. Defamation on Facebook is pervasive, leaving inescapable stigmas that survive long after the offending words are no longer online talking points,” said Master Alexander, adding that it was assumed that Ali was aiming to attract maximum attention and do maximum damage from his actions and failed to take steps to mitigate his mistake, not even apologizing to Ramnarine.
“It was assumed that he understood his influence with his online audience and in the sports industry when he tried to destroy the claimant’s career with his Facebook slander.
“In the face of his defamatory carnage, the defendant refused to apologize and continued undisturbed in his career, while the plaintiff was left to deal with the professional and personal wreckage caused by the defamation.”
At the Supreme Court level, Ali failed to defend the suit against him filed in 2019 by Dinanath Ramnarine, which was ruled in absentia in September 2020.
CMC
