A High Court jury has awarded €300,000 in damages against a director of the engineering firm, Joseph Murphy Structural Engineering for slandering a man in a pub in Co Leitrim in 2001.
Michael McManus, a self-employed contractor from Co Sligo, who runs a digger and plant hire business, sued Joseph Murphy for claiming that Mr McManus was responsible for setting fire to two excavators at a quarry in Arigna, Co Leitrim.
The damages are one of the highest ever awarded in a defamation action in the history of the state.
