Amazon review defamation case thrown out
A defamation case against a former deputy leader of the One Bermuda Alliance has been thrown out of court.
Leah Scott was sued by former regiment sergeant major Marilyn Steede for allegedly libelling her in October 2019, when the politician was the Opposition’s second-in-command.
The claim related to a derogatory review of Ms Steede’s romantic novel, When Your Body Gets Weak, which Ms Scott was alleged to have posted on Amazon.
Ms Scott, a lawyer, refuted the civil claim and applied to the Supreme Court to have the matter struck out as an “abuse of process and/or as having no real prospect of success and/or as a matter of public policy”.
She was successful, and the court ordered the claim be struck out in March, with Ms Steede ordered to pay Ms Scott’s costs, including the cost of the strikeout application.
Ms Scott, who was represented in court by lawyer and OBA MP Scott Pearman, told the Royal Gazette: “I am pleased by the court’s decision.”
Ms Steede did an annual 24-hour walkathon for many years, which raised $200,000 for local charities.
She represented herself in the civil case and said she found the legal proceedings “surreal” because she never got to present her pleadings and supporting exhibits.
She said the court found that her claim failed to meet the “minimum threshold of seriousness” needed to proceed to trial.
Ms Steede, who served in the Royal Bermuda Regiment and has previously run as a United Bermuda Party and an independent election candidate, told the court that though she objected to remarks about her in the online review, she “did not consider there had been any damage to” her reputation.
