Vector chairman Michael Stiassny. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Auckland businessman Michael Stiassny has been awarded nearly $1 million in one of the country's biggest defamation cases.
In his decision released in the High Court at Auckland Justice, Mark Cooper ordered American businessman Vincent Siemer to pay Vector chairman Michael Stiassny $920,000 for defamatory comments stretching back
to 2005.
They included repeated accusations about Mr Stiassny's business practices and personal relationships and also ethnic slurs.
Justice Cooper said in his decision that Mr Siemer led protests outside the home of Mr Stiassny, whose children suffered harassment by their peers.
"Mr Siemer has acted deliberately, vindictively and has added to his defamatory statements as time has gone on," the judge said.
Mr Stiassny had been appointed as a receiver of Mr Siemer's firm, Paragon Services, in July 2001.
During the escalating dispute, Mr Siemer posted derogatory remarks about Mr Stiassny on websites, conducted a letter-writing campaign and distributed notices and stickers around Auckland.
Mr Siemer has appealed against the decision to the Court of Appeal. An affidavit in support of the appeal said the judge erred in fact and law and "engaged in what an impartial observer might likely consider an unprincipled and materially-deceptive summary of the facts".
Mr Siemer said he had been bankrupted in New Zealand but had money in the United States.
"All Stiassny has to do to collect is to take it for review in the US courts."
Mr Stiassny said he did not expect to receive any money from Mr Siemer, who had put his assets in trust.
- NZ HERALD, NZPA
