Jury deliberating Andrew Little's defamation trial

Labour Party leader Andrew Little leaving the Wellington High Court with his lawyer, John Tizard. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The jury in Labour leader Andrew Little's defamation trial has left to consider whether he has defamed hoteliers Earl and Lani Hagaman.

The Hagamans are suing Little for defamation for comments he made about a $100,000 donation by the Hagamans to the National Party, a hotel management contract awarded to the Hagamans' Scenic Hotel a month later and a $7.5 million upgrade of the Niue hotel after that out of aid money.

Justice Karen Clark told the jury if they did consider those comments were defamatory, she had ruled the defence of qualified privilege applied in this case which gave Little protection.

She said that privilege applied where a person had a moral, social or legal duty to make the comments they had. Little had claimed he had a moral duty as Leader of the Opposition to hold the Government to account and the Government was his target.

Justice Clark said the jury could decide Little had lost that privilege if he had either been motivated predominantly by ill-will toward Earl or Lani Hagaman in his comments, or had improperly taken advantage of the privilege.

She told the jury it was the Hagamans' job to prove either of those had happened, referring to their lawyer Richard Fowler's argument that Little had paid little regard to the Hagamans because they were National Party donors, had made no attempt to check with the Hagamans before speaking publicly and use of language such as "stinks to high heaven" and "murky."

She told the jury to put aside any sympathies they might feel for any of those concerned, and any political views they might have.

She said if they did decide damages were required, they should assess what was "fair and reasonable" for both the Hagamans and Little, but did not need to consider what was affordable for Little.

The jury has to decide on separate claims by Earl Hagaman and Lani Hagaman, both of which are based on comments in a press release by Little and five different broadcasts of interviews with Little.