Reachlocal UK Ltd & Anor v Bennett & Ors
2014
QUEEN’S BENCH DIVISION
United Kingdom
CORAM
- THE HON.MR JUSTICE NICOL
Areas of Law
- Civil Procedure
- Human Rights Law
- Contract Law
- Evidence Law
2014
QUEEN’S BENCH DIVISION
United Kingdom
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The Claimants filed a lawsuit for libel, slander, and breach of contract. The Defendants missed multiple deadlines for filing a defence. The court denied the 1st Defendant's application for relief from sanctions, citing dishonesty and lack of a valid excuse, but allowed the 3rd Defendant's application, acknowledging some effort to comply and his status as a litigant in person.
Judgment
HHJ Richard Parkes QC :
The claimants are two companies in the ReachLocal group, the ultimate parent of which is a US incorporated company, ReachLocal Inc. The second claimant is the main European subsidiary of the ReachLocal group, and the first claimant is the UK subsidiary of the second claimant. The ReachLocal group carries on business in many countries, providing online advertising and marketing services. Their service includes search engine advertising using keywords and boosting the profiles of their customers by raising their rankings on search engines, a process known as search engine optimisation.
The fifth defendant, Your Online Digital Agency Ltd, is an English company which describes itself as a boutique online marketing agency providing search engine optimisation, social media media marketing, pay per click, and other marketing services. It has two registered directors, the third defendant and the fourth defendant. The first defendant is not a registered director of the fifth defendant but holds himself out as its 'managing partner’ and as being authorised to represent the company. The second defendant has been joined to these proceedings because that is the name of the person who appears to have been directly responsible for the publication of many, if not most, of the words of which the claimants complain. The claimants’ position is that the second defendant is no more than an alias used by the first defendant.
The application which I have to consider is for final relief, in terms both of damages and injunction, in consequence of judgment in default of defence obtained by the claimants against the first, second, fourth and fifth defendants by order of Nicol J dated 3 July 2014. The third defendant is not a respondent to this application, the claimants having compromised their claim against him. That settlement was recorded in a Tomlin order dated 23 July 2014.
The claims made in this action are for defamation (libel and slander), malicious falsehood, breach of confidence and breach of contract. The claim form was issued on 12 March 2014, and on 20 March 2014 the claimants applied for a variety of interim injunctive relief and for an expedited trial of the claim. On 28 March 2014 Sir David Eady granted interim injunctions against each of the defendants, by which they were restrained from any further publication of the defamatory allegations complained of, and they were ordered (inter alia) to hand over all details held by them