The former Scottish women's curling skip, Gail Munro, has been successful in her defamation action against the former national team manager, Derek Brown. Lord Docherty found that Mr Brown had defamed Ms Munro and awarded her damages of £21,950.
Ms Munro was skipper of the Scotland team at the World Ladies Curling championships in Vernon, Canada in March 2008. Following a run of eight defeats Ms Munro did not play in the next game against Italy. Immediately after the Italy game Mr Brown gave a press conference at which he stated that Ms Munro had been given the opportunity to play against Italy but that she had refused to play.
Ms Munro claimed that what Mr Brown said was false and defamatory. She claimed that Mr Brown had dropped her from the team to play Italy. She was not given an opportunity to return to the ice and at no point did she refuse to play for Scotland. She was angered by the allegation and her reputation had been damaged. Mr Brown maintained that what he had said to journalists was true and relied on the defence of veritas.
The critical issue was what had been said in conversations between Ms Munro and Rhona Martin, the national team coach and gold medal winner at the 2002 Olympics, on the evening of 27th March and the following morning. The evidence showed that some of the language deployed during the hotel room conversation was as blue as the outer ring of the house.
Lord Doherty found that Ms Munro was doing her best to tell the truth and that she had been stung by the allegations and was still deeply hurt by them. Lord Doherty found that Ms Martin had not asked Ms Munro to play, nor did she ask Ms Munro if she would play if Mr Brown asked her to. Ms Brown had not refused to play for her country. As Ms Munro proved her case, the defence of veritas failed.
The level of damages awarded may raise a few eyebrows given the relatively low level of damages awarded generally in defamation actions in Scotland. Damages in the law of Scotland can be awarded for solatium and patrimonial loss – what this means is compensation for hurt to feelings, for the damage to reputation and any financial loss suffered. They are not awarded to punish the defamer.
In reality each proven case of defamation involves a unique slander and affects the defamed person or business in unique ways. In this case the false allegations received widespread publicity and Mr Brown continued to insist that the allegations were true for more than three years. The allegations were found to have caused Ms Munro hurt and real distress and to have damaged her reputation and standing in the curling world as well as in the wider community. Ms Munro did not claim that she had suffered any financial loss as a result of the defamation.
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