After the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court dismissed his appeals application, Antiguan entrepreneur and billionaire Calvin Ayre suffered a setback in his defamation claim against the Reuters news agency.
Ayre had initiated a defamation claim on February 28, 2020, in connection with a 2017 article titled ‘Bitcoin’s creditor races to patent technology with gambling tycoon’ published on a Reuters website.
His legal team had initially sent the claim to Reuters UK via the court’s E-Litigation portal, but as the case progressed, it was revealed that Reuters UK was not the correct defendant.
Subsequently, he attempted to substitute Reuters USA as the correct defendant, but the court found that the claim form’s validity had expired, and the three-year limitation period for defamation claims had also lapsed.
Reuters legal representative also noted that Ayre had not taken any other permissible step to put matters right and to ensure or extend the claim form’s continued validity.
Consequently, Ayre has been ordered to pay Reuters USA’s costs for appealing a courts initial decision to dismiss the claim.
The judges rejected all four issues and eleven grounds of appeal presented by Ayre’s attorneys, emphasizing disagreement with the legal propositions put forth in the appeal. This ruling marks a significant setback for Ayre in his pursuit of defamation remedies against Reuters. Ayre wants an injunction against further publication of the article, a ‘correction order’ under the Defamation Act 2015, and damages for defamation.