“Today Mail Online can reveal Mrs Lisle-Mainwaring has also fallen out with the family of her late husband Robert, who have accused her of failing to pass on cash and property worth millions after his death in 2007. Robert Lisle, her stepson, said her behaviour does not surprise him, having last had contact with her in 2012 when they continued to row over the inheritance he believes is due to him and the wider family. He said: ‘She has made commitments and reneged on them. She’s an extremely unpleasant character.’ His wife Sally claims Mrs Lisle-Mainwaring’s life revolves around money, which has left her estranged from much of her family. She said: ‘She's fallen out with the family. It's sad, she’s missing out on them growing up and getting married. But she's not involved because of her decisions.’ ‘Her husband promised money and property to his children and grandchildren but after he died it never materialised. They were promises my husband's father made, but she has never kept one.’”
‘She has made commitments and reneged on them. She’s an extremely unpleasant character.’
“Not long before he died, Robert says, his father told him he'd be well provided for once he had passed away. ‘He told me that Yeoman’s Row was being sold for around£40 million , and that I would be all right.’ ‘I'd seen a copy of his will sometime previously in which he left 15 per cent of the joint estate to me and 15 per cent to Patricia's cousin with provision made for the grandchildren and various charities.’ But after his father's death, Robert was surprised to find his father had made a new will in the year before his death, leaving everything to Zipporah. ‘Obviously, I was taken aback, but I felt my father had entrusted her to look after the family financially and I had no reason to believe she would not.’ … It was the next conversation about money that soured the relationship. ‘By 2012, I'd become rather overweight and Zipporah told me she'd helped me pay off my£240,000 mortgage if I lost 2 st in the next few months,’ Robert recalls. It was a bizarre proposal, but he thought it was her way of finally passing on some of the money he'd expected. He took the offer seriously and lost the weight. ‘She came for dinner in August 2012, then said she wasn't going to pay - the words she used were that she realised she was “reneging on a commitment”’.”
“The successful plaintiff in a defamation action is entitled to recover, as general compensatory damages, such sum as will compensate him for the wrong he has suffered. That sum must compensate him for the damage to his reputation; vindicate his good name; and take account of the distress, hurt and humiliation which the defamatory publication has caused. In assessing the appropriate damages for injury to reputation the most important factor is the gravity of the libel; the more closely it touches the plaintiff's personal integrity, professional reputation, honour, courage, loyalty and the core attributes of his personality, the more serious it is likely to be. The extent of publication is also relevant; a libel published to millions has a greater potential to cause damage than a libel published to a handful of people. A successful plaintiff may properly look to an award of damages to vindicate his reputation; but the significance of this is much greater in a case where the defendant asserts the truth of the libel and refuses any retraction or apology than in a case where the defendant acknowledges the falsity of what was published and publicly expresses regret that the libellous publication took place. It is well established that compensatory damages may and should compensate for additional injury caused to the plaintiff's feelings by the defendant's conduct of the action, as when he persists in an unfounded assertion that the publication was true, or refuses to apologise, or cross examines the plaintiff in a wounding or insulting way.”
‘In a later statement, Zipporah said: “The dealings between my stepson and myself are private family matters. It is untrue that I have failed to support my stepson and this allegation is extremely hurtful. He and his son have been personally financed by me to the tune of approximately£1 million . This was not in any way from my husband’s money”’
“(1) ANL relies on findings of unconscionable conduct on the part of the claimant in a final judgment given by Etherton J in the case of James Cobbe v (1) Yeomans Row Management Ltd and (2) Robert Lisle-Mainwaring (the Cobbe proceedings), and endorsed on appeal to the Court of Appeal and House of Lords. ANL relies on findings of fact that the claimant had a settled intention not to abide by the terms of an agreement she had entered into with Mr Cobbe but deliberately refrained from telling him that she did not intend to honour the agreement, in order to ensure that he continued his efforts to obtain planning permission in respect of the Yeoman’s Row property, and that she thereby took unconscionable advantage of him. (2) ANL relies also on the claimant’s behaviour in painting her property at 19 South End in lurid red and white stripes, without consultation or warning to her neighbours, after the grant of planning permission for change of use was quashed by this court. The repainting is said to have been visually intrusive, gaudy and out of keeping with the surrounding properties and area, and the claimant is said to have acted in a provocative way that would inevitably attract public attention, criticism and inquiry.”
“Evidence of other damages recovered by plaintiff In any action for libel or slander the defendant may give evidence in mitigation of damages that the plaintiff has recovered damages, or has brought actions for damages, for libel or slander in respect of the publication of words to the same effect as the words on which the action is founded, or has received or agreed to receive compensation in respect of any such publication.”
“I think it more helpful to focus on what I would have been inclined to award for these libels following a trial (i.e. sitting as a judge alone) in which there had been no significant aggravation (such as a plea of justification) and no significant mitigation (such as an apology). This is not a wholly artificial scenario. It might arise in various ways; for example, if there were a trial confined to meaning or qualified privilege (neither of which, at least in theory, adds further injury to the claimant's reputation). I would tend to ask, having regard to the current conventional overall ceiling for damages …. what the particular libel is worth on that scale of gravity. The main factors to be taken into account are the gravity of the allegations, the extent of publication and the degree of distress caused to the claimant. Damages must be no more than the sum necessary and proportionate to compensate the claimant, that is, to provide her with vindication, and to compensate her for the damage to her reputation and for the distress which she has been caused.”
“I would then aim to make a significant reduction to take account not only of any actual apology but also of the very willingness of the defendant to use the offer of amends route. A defendant is in those circumstances effectively laying down his arms, and inviting meaningful negotiation over compensation and restoration of reputation.”
“One principle on which damages are awarded in defamation proceedings is that they are assessed as at the point of assessment. Of necessity, they are not in fact assessed at the date of publication, nor are they notionally assessed then. A further consequent principle is that conduct of the defendant after the publication may aggravate or mitigate the damage and therefore the award. Each case depends on its own facts and this will apply to the determination of compensation under s3(5). That said, if an early unqualified offer to make amends is made and accepted and an agreed apology is published, as in the present cases, there is bound to be substantial mitigation. The defendant has capitulated at an early stage without pleading any defence, has offered to make and publish a suitable correction and apology (and has in fact done so in agreed terms in the present cases) and has offered to pay proper compensation and costs, these to be determined by the court if they are not agreed—see ss2(4), 3(5) and 3(6). The claimant knows that his reputation has been repaired to the full extent that that is possible. He is vindicated. He is relieved from the anxiety and costs risk of contested proceedings. His feelings must of necessity be assuaged, although they may still remain bruised (and he is still entitled to say so, if that is so). He can point to the agreed apology to show the world that the defamation is accepted to have been untrue and unjustified. There may be cases in which some of these features are absent, or in which their impact may be slight. An example could be if the defendant had offered and published a correction and apology, which the claimant had not agreed and which the court found to be unsuitable and insufficient—see s3(5), second sentence. There may also be aggravating features, although the use of the procedure would generally suggest that there is unlikely to be significant aggravation after the making of the offer to make amends. “A healthy discount” may be a more colourful phrase than “substantial mitigation”, but they mean the same thing.”
“We have published numerous articles about the striped house and its owner Mrs Lisle-Mainwaring. Those articles have contained many errors and included defamatory statements. Further and specifically we published allegations from a Robert and Sally Lisle, which allegations we have been unable to substantiate. We apologise unreservedly and have paid Mrs Lisle-Mainwaring her legal costs and a sum in lieu of damages to charity on her behalf.”
“A Mail Online article on 15 April and a Daily Mail article of 18 April reporting on the painting of a house in Kensington with red and white stripes wrongly alleged that Zipporah Lisle-Mainwaring had mistreated her stepson’s family in relation to their inheritance in various ways. We accept that these defamatory allegations were untrue and apologise for the distress and upset caused and have [agreed to pay] [paid] Mrs Lisle-Mainwaring her costs and a sum to charity on her behalf in lieu of compensation.”
“The articles wrongly alleged that Zipporah Lisle-Mainwaring had mistreated her late husband’s son, Robert Lisle, and his family in relation to inheritance claims in various ways. The defendants have been unable to substantiate these allegations which were untrue and defamatory of the claimant and caused her considerable distress. Robert Lisle and his wife contributed to their publication which increased the hurt to her feelings. The claimant felt she had no alternative but to instruct her solicitors to issue a defamation claim. The defendants have accepted that the allegations are untrue and made an offer of amends which the claimant has accepted. The defendants are here today by their counsel to apologise unreservedly for the publication of these allegations. The first defendant has [agreed to pay] [paid] the claimant’s legal costs together with a sum to charity on her behalf in lieu of compensation.”
“Millionaire property developer Zipporah Lisle-Mainwaring received an apology and damages at the High Court yesterday over articles in which we reported on a dispute involving her London mews house being painted with red and white stripes. The articles, on April 15 and 17 last year, wrongly reported untrue allegations made by her late husband’s son, Robert Lisle, and his wife that she had mistreated him and his family in relation to inheritance claims, including by unreasonably denying them money they claimed they had been promised. The Daily Mail, Mail Online and journalist Kathryn Knight apologised for the distress and embarrassment caused by the allegations and a further defamatory matter mentioned in one article which she considered similarly infringed her rights. We agreed not to repeat that allegations and to pay her costs. Mrs Lisle-Mainwaring said she was donating the damages to a charity for Second World War pilots.”
“2.1 Statements of case should be confined to the information necessary to inform the other party of the nature of the case he has to meet. Such information should be set out concisely and in a manner proportionate to the subject matter of the claim. 2.10 (1) A claimant must give full details of the facts and matters on which he relies in support of his claim for damages.”
“10.3 The Internet’s ubiquity and the permanent and accessible nature of the words complained of …. mean not only that the claimant’s reputation is already irreparably harmed but also that further serious harm to it is in the future likely. 10.4 The words complained of have entirely foreseeably been repeated and republished extensively by other websites worldwide with open accessibility in this jurisdiction, so increasing the scope of publications here and the serious harm to the claimant’s reputation for which the Defendants and each of them are responsible. For example, at…. [the pleader goes on to identify three locations, one on the website wn.com, and two on source30.com ].”
“Further, in support of her claim for special damages the Claimant will rely upon her costs incurred in having removed from the Internet the various repetitions and republications by third parties of the words complained of and links to the same, which repetitions, republications and links are the foreseeable consequence of the publications of the said words by the Defendants and each of them and have been caused by the said publications. The Claimant is presently unable to quantify or particularise her loss in these respects but will serve particulars of special damage separately when the same are available.”
“Where the sufferer from a breach of contract finds himself in consequence of that breach placed in a position of embarrassment, the measures which he may be driven to adopt in order to extricate himself ought not to be weighed in nice scales at the instance of the party whose breach of contract has occasioned the difficulty. It is often easy after an emergency has passed to criticise the steps which have been taken to meet it, but such criticism does not come well from those who have themselves created the emergency. The law is satisfied if the party placed in a difficult situation by reason of the breach of the duty owed to him has acted reasonably in the adoption of remedial measures and he will not be held disentitled to recover the cost of such measures merely because the party in breach can suggest that other measures less burdensome to him might have been taken.”
“[8] The Neill Committee recommendation was primarily directed towards providing a fair and reasonable exit route for defendants confronted with unreasonable demands from such manipulative or powerful claimants, who felt no doubt sometimes that they had them “over a barrel”
“[15] Both parties prepared bodies of evidence seeking respectively to aggravate and to mitigate the compensation. The judge either ignored or declined to admit most of this. He was right to do so. Speaking generally, there may of course be evidence from both sides relevant to the determination of compensation. But in principle it seems that a claimant should not normally be permitted to enlarge significantly pleaded allegations upon which the offer to make amends was made and accepted, for example by promoting a new case of malice. Nor should a defendant, who has made an unqualified offer which has been accepted, be permitted to water down significantly the pleaded allegations. Claimants should therefore plead the full substance for which they seek redress: defendants who wish to make amends for significantly less than that full substance should make appropriate qualifications to their offer.”