Five council members, who supported Ignatius Leong, resigned on Oct 23, 2015. - ILLUSTRATION: PIXABAY
SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): After a seven-year court battle, a former honorary treasurer of the Singapore Chess Federation (SCF) has won a defamation suit against 21 members of the organisation who had signed a letter that falsely accused him of sexual misconduct.
Businessman Jasmin Nisban was awarded S$120,000 by a district judge, who said aggravated damages were warranted against the 21 defendants.
The defendants, many of whom have occupied high-level positions in government as well as in the private sector, had signed a requisition letter between November 2015 and Jan 6, 2016, seeking to overthrow the sitting president and executive council, including Nisban.
The letter stated that Nisban and another council member had been “implicated” in an incident of sexual misconduct at the SCF office in Bishan on Aug 30, 2015, which led a female chess trainer to resign and file a police report.
What actually took place was that Nisban was present in the room when the other council member made a remark to the trainer that she felt was insulting. Nisban was later interviewed as part of investigations.
In a 427-page judgment dated July 31, 2023, district judge Tan May Tee said a member who reads the offending statements would take them to mean that Nisban was one of the two council members accused of sexual misconduct.
She said: “Naming the plaintiff as one of the two council members implicated in the sexual misconduct incident without distinguishing the different roles they played... had the effect of tarnishing both council members with the same brush of shame.”
The event that spawned the lawsuit can be traced back to SCF’s executive council elections on Aug 2, 2015, when Ignatius Leong, the incumbent president, suffered a shock defeat against opponent Leonard Lau.
Leong had been SCF president since 2007 and been actively involved in chess for over 40 years both locally and internationally. He had also served as general secretary of the world governing body for chess, Federation Internationale des Echecs.
Disagreements soon arose among the newly-elected council members, which came from two opposing camps – one loyal to Mr Leong and the other consisting of members including Lau and Nisban.
Five council members, who supported Leong, resigned on Oct 23, 2015.
On Jan 6, 2016, a requisition request was sent to the SCF calling for a vote of no confidence against Lau and his council.
Accompanying the request was a letter which contained detailed reasons for the ouster.
One section of the letter referred to the resignation of the female trainer and named Mr Nisban as one of the two council members “implicated” in the incident.
A total of 51 requisitioners had been persuaded by Leong to sign the request. Not all of them read the requisition letter before they signed.
On Jan 22, 2016, Nisban’s lawyers wrote to the requisitioners, informing them that the statements were untrue and offering them an opportunity to dissociate themselves from the requisition letter.
This left 39 members who did not and were sued for libel. Subsequently, another 18 members settled the matter with Nisban.
Leong was not sued in his personal capacity, as he did not sign the requisition letter.
Judge Tan concluded that Leong was instrumental in canvassing support for the requisition, which was driven by his supporters.
The judge also found that the defendants were reckless as to the truth of the defamatory statements or were motivated by an improper purpose to support Leong in his campaign to oust the sitting council.
She said: “The record shows that many of them had dug in their heels and insisted that the statements were not defamatory and that they had done no wrong in endorsing the same, even when they had not read the requisition letter.”
She also noted that the trial revealed the combative attitudes and the disdain and contempt displayed by some of the defendants towards Nisban.
She highlighted that Alphonsus Chia, a former chief executive of the now defunct regional airline SilkAir, insisted that Nisban was unreasonable in taking legal action to clear his name and hence, challenged the plaintiff to “bring it on”.
Commenting on the verdict, Nisban said he was glad that the saga has come to an end.
“After seven long years and substantial investment in time, effort, money and emotion, justice has finally prevailed, and the court has vindicated my name and reputation.”
Nisban thanked his lawyers – Lau Kok Keng, Daniel Quek and Edina Lim from Rajah & Tann – and said he hopes to put the experience behind him.
