Felder to pay $50,000 in costs as defamation case dismissed

(CMR) Former Cayman Automotive Sales & Leasing Manager, John Felder, has agreed to pay the legal fees associated with a lawsuit he filed in 2019 against Cayman Marl Road's Content Manager, Sandra Hill. In a court order filed on April 20, the Plaintiff has agreed to pay US$50,000 in full and final settlement of all costs incurred in the proceedings – bringing the case to a close.

The order confirms that both the default judgment previously obtained by Felder and his award for $105,000 in damages have both been set aside by the Hon. Justice McMillan.

The matter was brought back before the Hon. Justice McMillian on April 14 to settle several contested aspects after his December judgment. He had retired and in an unusual move, the Chief Justice brought him out of retirement to deal solely with this matter.

Paragraph two of the filed order notes some of the areas being initially contested. However, during the course of the proceedings, the parties settled the matter with Felder's attorneys agreeing to discontinue any further applications in relation to the matter and to pay Hill's attorney fees.

Justice McMillian expressed concerns over the course of the hearing about the legal arguments being put forth by Priestley's on behalf of their client. By the end of the day's proceedings, he stressed that the parties would be well served to negotiate the matter instead of continuing to incur additional costs for all involved. The matter was set to continue on Tuesday, April 19 but instead the parties agreed to the content of the order which has been signed off on by the judge.

This order concludes the defamation lawsuit which began in December 2019 and initially saw Felder awarded a substantial sum by Justice Marlene Carter following a default judgment by McMillan. The judge eventually set aside his own order but there remained the necessity to have the judgment awarded by Justice Carter to also be set aside.

Justice McMillian had expressed that out of professional courtesy he would have allowed Carter to set aside her own judgment. However, in a March hearing, Carter agreed that she had no objections to Justice McMillian dealing with all aspects of the case.

After the order and dismissal of the proceedings, Hill expressed her sincere gratitude that the case had finally been settled after all this time and thanked attorney's Broadhurst for their exemplary work on the case. She shared:

“This case had ended successful because of excellent legal representation. I must express my outmost gratitude and appreciation for the tremendous work that Kyle Broadhurst, Tiziana and Joseph Romano performed in this case. They provided key legal advice and follow-through and I would highly recommend them as skilled litigators.”