The Samoa Observer newspaper has been ordered by the Supreme Court to pay $72,300 damages for defaming a former church minister and his daughter.
Leilua Opapo Soanai Oeti and his daughter Toaipuapuaga Patrick sued the newspaper in March 2017 saying statements in a Letter to the Editor published by the newspaper were defamatory.
The daily newspaper appealed the 2019 findings by Justice Tuatagaloa that five statements or words in the letter to the editor were defamatory.
The Court of Appeal last year upheld three of the five statements to be defamatory.
In her written decision on Friday, Acting Chief Justice Niava Mata Tuatagaloa ordered the newspaper to pay $72,300 compensation for damages to the plaintiffs.
Niava ordered the newspaper to pay $16,800 to the former church minister, $52,500 to his daughter Ms. Patrick and $3000 toward the plaintiffs’ costs.
The plaintiffs had initially sought damages worth $700,000 for general damages, aggravated damages and punitive damages.
The newspaper had published a retraction and apology to the plaintiffs, days after the publication of the letter.
