OPPOSITION LEADER Edward Seaga is to apologise in the media to Mandeville businessman Kenneth 'Skeng Don' Black for libelling him at a public meeting in Junction, St. Elizabeth, on October 21, 2001.
An out of court settlement was announced yesterday when the lawyers representing
the parties attended a pre-trial review in the Supreme Court.
TERMS OF THE AGREEMENTS
The terms of the agreements were made on the condition that Mr. Seaga publish an apology to Mr. Black within seven days from December 16. It was agreed that the apology is to be broadcast on radio and television and published in the newspapers.
Another part of the agreement is that Mr. Seaga is to pay Mr. Black's legal costs of $500,000, payable in four monthly instalments of $125,000 commencing on February 2, next year.
Black is the managing director of the construction company Black Brothers, and is also a member of the governing People's National Party (PNP).
"We want to make it clear that Mr. Black's concern was not to be compensated in dollars and cents but more so for the Leader of the Opposition to admit that he had no basis for the incorrect and slanderous statement he made against him," attorney-at-law Bert Samuels, who represented Mr. Black, told The Gleaner.
