Ewing (Terence Patrick) v Times Newspapers Ltd
| Jurisdiction | Northern Ireland |
| Judge | Gillen J |
| Neutral Citation | [2011] NIQB 63 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division (Northern Ireland) |
| Date | 30 June 2011 |
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Neutral Citation No. [2011] NIQB 63 Ref:
GIL8231
Judgment: approved by the Court for handing down Delivered:
30/06/11
(subject to editorial corrections)*
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE IN NORTHERN IRELAND
_______
QUEEN’S BENCH DIVISION
________
BETWEEN:
TERENCE PATRICK EWING
Plaintiff;
-and-
TIMES NEWSPAPERS LIMITED
Defendant.
_________
GILLEN J
Application
[1] This is an application pursuant to Order 18 Rule 19(1)(b) and (d) of the
Rules of the Court of Judicature (Northern Ireland) 2009 and the inherent
jurisdiction of the court to dismiss the plaintiff’s claim on the grounds that the
plaintiff’s claim is frivolous and/or vexatious or is otherwise an abuse of the
process of the court.
[2] The plaintiff’s claim in the current proceedings arises out of an article
published by the defendant on 11 February 2007 both in the Northern Ireland
edition of the Sunday Times Newspapers and on the “Times on-line” website
entitled “Heritage Fakers Hold Builders to Ransom”. In the course of this
article it was alleged, inter alia, that despite claiming to campaign to protect
Britain’s architectural heritage a non-profit group known as the Euston Trust
had accepted a secret payment to drop objections to a development in a
seaside town in England. This group was said to be suspected of taking
money in similar circumstances from other builders in return for withdrawing
objections to proposed developments. The Trust is described in the article as
being run by the plaintiff who was said to have studied planning law whilst
serving a prison sentence for theft and forgery in the 1980s. The article
contained a reference to another individual named Mr Hammerton who had
been the secretary of Euston Trust and who had apparently said that he
suspected the plaintiff of having received payments from developers “to pull
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out of intended judicial review challenges”. The article recorded that the
plaintiff had emphatically denied ever having been offered and or taking
payments from developers .
[3] The article was written by Daniel Foggo and Robert Booth who were
journalists with the defendant. The plaintiff also alleges that in the hard
copies of the article distributed in Northern Ireland an intrusive small
photograph of the plaintiff taken allegedly surreptitiously appeared beside
another of Mr Hammerton.
[4] In his amended statement of claim the plaintiff alleges that in their
natural and ordinary meanings the words in the article and “The Times On
Line” website version meant and were understood to mean that the plaintiff:
• had corruptly been involved with and/or had facilitated and/or
condoned the payment of £10,000 or bribe a developer in order to drop
objections to the developer’s planning application and scheme.
• had corruptly been involved with and/or had fabricated the
acceptance of many other bribes from other developers systematically
and serially in order to drop objections to other developers’ planning
applications and schemes and/or judicial review applications in
connection with them.
• had corruptly made planning applications for the purpose of extorting
demands of the payment of money from developers and/or accepting
corrupt payments of money and bribes from them systematically and
serially.
• was not genuinely interested or concerned about heritage and
planning issues but had been using these issues along with others as a
front for corrupt payments from developers in return for dropping
planning objections and judicial reviews.
[5] The plaintiff seeks aggravated and/or exemplary damages.
[6] Finally the plaintiff seeks an injunction restraining the defendant from
further publishing the said or similar words and ordering the defendant to
remove all publications in hard copy within Northern Ireland and from
continuing to publish The Times On Line website containing the said words.
Order 18 Rule 19(1) of the Rules of the Court of Judicature (Northern
Ireland) 2009(“the Rules”)
[7] Where relevant these Rules provide as follows:
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Jody Nesbitt and Diana Nesbitt and Robin Swann and Naomi Long and Mike Nesbitt and Jim Shannon
...O’Dwyer v Chief Constable of the RUC (1997) NI 403 as being the leading authority, and to decisions such as Ewing v Times Newspapers Ltd [2011] NIQB 63 and Mitchell and Osula v McElreavy and Gateway Social Services [2018] NIMaster 4 as examples of how the power has been exercised. Judicial ......