Member of Parliament (MP) for Portland Western Daryl Vaz on Friday morning filed a lawsuit against People’s National Party (PNP) General Secretary Dr Dayton Campbell over “defamatory” comments made on a political platform last month.
The claim was filed in the Civil Division of the Supreme Court.
Vaz, who is also minister of science, energy, telecommunications, and transportation, said Campbell’s utterances, during the PNP’s Clarendon North Western annual conference, implied that he is lacking in probity, moral integrity and decency.
“The said words are actionable per se under the laws of Jamaica,” Vaz said in the nine-page claim filed by his attorney.
He said Campbell’s references were motivated by malice and were calculated to disparage him in his political, professional, social and personal life.
“The deliberate and intended effect of the defendant’s words was to lower the claimant in the estimation of right thinking members of society, to humiliate the claimant and expose him to ridicule, contempt and mockery while asserting that the defendant ‘no ‘fraid a nobody’,” the claim said.
Vaz is seeking damages for defamation; exemplary and aggravated damages; interest; an injunction barring Campbell from repeating the allegations; costs and “such further and/or other relief” the court deems just.
-Kimone Francis
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