Fran­cis Joseph

Bri­an Man­ning, son of Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning, yes­ter­day with­drew a li­bel and slan­der suit against sports com­men­ta­tor, Anil "Spalk" Roberts, Gayelle Tele­vi­sion, and US bas­ket­ball agent Nixon Dyall.

Apart from with­draw­ing the case, Man­ning has to pay $30,000 in costs for the failed case. Man­ning, 35, had filed the writ in 2008, seek­ing dam­ages for slan­der and li­bel, aris­ing out of a sports pro­gramme on Gayelle Tele­vi­sion. In court yes­ter­day, Man­ning was rep­re­sent­ed by Stu­art Young. Shas­tri Roberts, in­struct­ed by Car­la Sci­pio, ap­peared for Anil Roberts, while Nali­ni Shar­ma ap­peared for Gayelle Tele­vi­sion. Man­ning was present along with Roberts, Er­rol Fa­bi­en and Chris Laird, all of Gayelle Tele­vi­sion. Man­ning filed a claim in May, 2008, against Dyall, Roberts and Gayelle TV, seek­ing ag­gra­vat­ed and ex­em­plary dam­ages for li­bel and/or slan­der for state­ments made by Dyall and Roberts dur­ing the "Spalk" pro­gramme aired on tele­vi­sion on Ju­ly, 1, 2007.

The show cen­tred around the pro­posed es­tab­lish­ment of a pro­fes­sion­al bas­ket­ball league with a pro­ject­ed ini­tial in­vest­ment of $9 mil­lion by the SPORTT Com­pa­ny. Man­ning had sent a let­ter, dat­ed No­vem­ber 7, 2007, to the de­fen­dants through his at­tor­neys, Hob­sons, be­fore the claim was filed, de­mand­ing $500,000 in dam­ages, an apol­o­gy and re­pay­ment of $5,000 in le­gal costs. The de­fen­dants did not re­lent and de­cide to pur­sue the case. Six months lat­er, Man­ning filed the writ in court seek­ing the dam­ages. Every­thing was set for hear­ing yes­ter­day be­fore Jus­tice Joan Charles in the Port-of-Spain High Court. Sev­en days had been set aside for hear­ing of ev­i­dence, cross-ex­am­i­na­tion and sub­mis­sions. Three case man­age­ment hear­ings al­ready had been con­vened. Yes­ter­day, pri­or to the start of the case, dis­cus­sions start­ed be­tween both sides. The case was stood down for those dis­cus­sions to take place. Even­tu­al­ly, an agree­ment was reached, scut­tling the sev­en days of hear­ing which had been put aside.

It was agreed that Man­ning would with­draw the case. It was al­so agreed that Man­ning would pay costs to Roberts and Gayelle in the sum of $15,000 each. It was al­so agreed that no costs would be paid to Dyall, a Trinida­di­an. In ac­cept­ing the set­tle­ment, Jus­tice Charles said: "The court is very hap­py that you can come to an am­i­ca­ble set­tle­ment. "The court is al­ways hap­py when mat­ters are set­tled. "It is re­al­ly a com­mend­able ef­fort by all con­cerned."Out­side the court, Man­ning shook hands with Fa­bi­en as every­one left the Hall of Jus­tice.