Lim Bee Chian v Hendrick Chia Miah Yang

Case Significance

A workplace libel action between consultant colleagues over a letter to hospital management, addressing publication, qualified privilege and express malice, with judgment for the plaintiff of RM100,000 general damages, an injunction, interest and RM50,000 costs, and no aggravated damages.

This High Court (Shah Alam) decision determines a libel action between two consultant cardiologists practising at the same medical centre. At the material time the defendant was the Head of the Cardiology Department at the centre. The plaintiff brought the action in libel in respect of a letter dated 14 November 2017, written by the defendant and addressed to the Deputy Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the centre, and copied to a number of named senior figures in the hospital's management and clinical hierarchy, including the managing director of the group's healthcare service, the director of clinical services, the director of nursing, a senior manager of medical affairs, the medical director, the head of the division of medicine, and the chairman of the medical and dental advisory board.

The issues the court addressed were those characteristic of a defamation claim: the tort of defamation, publication, defamatory intent, the defence of qualified privilege and the question of express malice. The publication of the letter to the persons named in its copy list engaged the question whether the occasion of publication was one of qualified privilege and, if so, whether that privilege was defeated by express malice on the part of the defendant.

Having considered the factors relevant to the assessment of damages and the trend of awards made by the courts in libel cases, the court awarded damages in the sum of RM100,000 against the defendant. In its decision the court granted judgment for the plaintiff and made the following orders: general damages of RM100,000; an injunction restraining further publication of the impugned words or anything similar of the defamatory matters; interest on the judgment sum at 5% per annum from the date of judgment until full settlement; and costs of RM50,000, subject to allocatur. No order was made for aggravated damages. The judgment illustrates the treatment of a workplace defamation between professional colleagues, the defence of qualified privilege, and the assessment of damages and grant of injunctive relief in a libel action.