Jury verdict not perverse

Grobbelaar v News Group Newspapers Ltd and another (H of L TLR 25 October)

The Court of Appeal had been in error in concluding that on the evidence and on the judge’s direction, the jury must have acted perversely in finding that the Sun newspaper had defamed the football goalkeeper, Bruce Grobbelaar. However, the claimant had been shown to have acted in such flagrant breach of his legal and moral obligations that it would be an affront to justice if a court of law were to award him substantial damages. Accordingly, while the House of Lords restored the jury’s verdict, it reduced the damages awarded from £85,000 to a nominal £1. In a dissenting judgment, Lord Steyn wholeheartedly agreed with the decision of the Court of Appeal that the jury’s complete exoneration of Mr Grobbelaar was perverse and he should not receive even the derisory award of £1.