A wealthy Irish family who were wrongly accused of not paying their $200 dine-in bill at a bar in Derbyshire, UK, have been awarded almost $100,000 for defamation.
According to the Daily Mail, Peter Girvan, the lawyer representing the defendants, stated during the court hearing on Friday in Belfast that “The allegations were entirely false.”
The management of the restaurant had uploaded CCTV footage from July 2024 onto their Facebook page, ‘Horse and Jockey,’ showing pictures of the family with the caption “dine-and-dashers,” accusing the couple and their two children of leaving without paying their $200 tab. The post has since been deleted.
Peter and Ann McGirr, who were dining with their children Peter Jr and Carol, had ordered 10-ounce rib-eye steaks with all the trimmings, two ham steaks, and several alcoholic beverages. The Tyrone residents, who run a successful engineering firm, were horrified when at least four different newspapers circulated the allegations of their “shocking behaviour.”
The furious family then sued the Horse and Jockey for libel, “on the grounds that these claims caused severe embarrassment and reputational damage.”
Their lawyer declared that “These articles contained serious and defamatory accusations that the plaintiffs had engaged in dishonest and criminal conduct by deliberately absconding without settling a bill of approximately £150 (around $200).” He added that “The plaintiffs had not engaged in any such conduct, and the statements made by the defendants had no factual basis.”
As a result, the bar was required to pay $99,500 along with the defendants’ legal expenses to compensate for the defamatory claims.
Horse and Jockey representatives have apologised to the defendants and expressed that there was “no basis whatsoever” for the allegations.
According to the Daily Mail, the lawyer representing the McGirr family stated that they had been “vindicated” by the outcome and were “very satisfied with the settlement.”
Following the verdict, Carol McGirr shared her relief in a Facebook post: “10 months later.. thank God it’s all over and our names are cleared.”
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