"The highest compensation ever in the country in a defamation lawsuit": The Hadera municipality will compensate a contractor with about one million shekels

The municipality decided to compensate the contractor Rami Hasson in the amount of NIS 1.23 million - mostly for "inaccurate content that did not reflect reality" in a spokeswoman's statement, which stated that he was suspected of receiving anything fraudulently in view of the accounts he submitted.

City Hall: "Considering appeal"

Yoav Itiel

31/12/2021

Friday, 31 December 2021, 09:05 Updated: 21:07

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The Haifa District Court ruled yesterday (Thursday) that the Hadera municipality will compensate a local contractor in the amount of one million shekels, most of them due to a spokesperson's announcement issued seven years ago.

The background to the spokeswoman's announcement was a complaint filed by the municipality with the police on the instructions of Brigadier General (Res.) Zvika Gandelman and the director general of the municipality, Brigadier General (Res.) Yaakov Zigdon, who is suspected of receiving anything fraudulently. The

company, which won the municipality's tender while Haim Avitan served as mayor, carried out construction and renovation work of educational institutions and public buildings throughout the city of Hadera. In February 2014, the company sued the municipality for a sum of NIS 21,123,272, which it claimed had reached it and had not been paid.

The case that is the subject of the complaint to the police was closed much earlier, nine months after it was filed, for lack of criminal guilt, after the suspicion of receiving anything by fraud was refuted.

But, not the complaint was the problem underlying the lawsuit.

Judge Hananel Sharabi, who heard Hasson and his company's lawsuit against the Hadera municipality and its head, even ruled that the complaint was filed in good faith and with reasonable motives, without malicious intent or negligence.

More on Walla!

Hadera mayor accused of fraud and breach of trust, Mandelblit asked to be suspended

To the full article

Compensate the contractor for more than one million shekels.

Hadera Municipality (Photo: Shlomi Gabay)

Hasson and his company sued Gandelman and the municipality for the press release issued when the complaint was filed with the police and its headline in large print was: They claimed that they had suffered damage of NIS 17,336,000, and set their defamation lawsuit at NIS 10 million. They chose not to sue the media outlets that published news stories based on the announcement of the city spokeswoman.

The judge who reviewed the sequence of events and examined verbatim the spokesperson's statement on the complaint filed with the police, found in two parts the "inaccurate content that did not reflect reality, even in terms of 'truth for the time being'" and that "in this case there is a lack of good faith in publication" By the municipality. By the way, the speaker left the municipality a long time ago.

Gandelman's position was that the municipality's spokesperson department is the faith in the publications on behalf of the municipality and claimed that it had discretion in the media field, and it published its notice in question.

He admitted that he was aware of the content of the press release prior to its publication, but claimed that he did not initiate or formulate or instruct the City Spokeswoman on how to draft or publish the said announcement;

He believed that the announcement was justified, that it was a suspicion of receiving large sums of public money by deception and in these circumstances it was appropriate that the Hadera residents knew about the filing of the complaint.

Easy and material when the contractor himself "made sure" that the alleged debt of the tens of millions of shekels would be in the public domain and published himself in the media and on Facebook the filing of the financial lawsuit against the municipality.

He lamented that in some publications the contractor called him a "liar";

"corrupt";

"Hiding behind the apron," and even promised to fight it to the end.

Rami Hasson (Photo: Shlomi Gabay)

He claimed that the publication was not in his instruction or with the intent to harm. At the same time he was aware of it in advance. His remarks quoted in the said publication were intended to clarify the need and justify the decision to file the complaint, whose motives are purely professional.

In his view, in any event, the things in the publication, including the quotation from him, correspond to the nature of the complaint filed; As for the publications on other media sites that followed the publication of the spokespersons' notice of the filing of the complaint, the municipality is not responsible for these articles and was not a partner in them including he personally, in any way. The municipality is only responsible for its official spokesperson announcement. He noted that elected officials, like him, are allowed in their role to maintain contact with the public, to conduct themselves transparently, and even through the media.

In the opening of the ruling, Judge Sharabi mentioned what he also believes is obvious: the municipal spokesperson department is an integral part of the municipality.

Therefore, to the extent that it is found that the publication in question is in the nature of "publication" that amounts to "defamation", the responsibility of the municipality for the tort of defamation will also arise.

In this context, he refers to Gandelman's affidavit, in which he stated that the municipality is responsible for the publications of its spokespersons, which has led to publications in the local and national media.

Hadera Mayor Zvika Gandelman (Photo: Shlomi Gabay)

Judge Sharabi granted the Hadera municipality's request and recognized Gandelman's immunity as a public servant, so the lawsuit against the mayor himself was dismissed. He stated that the contracting company is entitled to compensation from the municipality in respect of the removal project worked from her illegally in the amount of NIS 150,000 and the company and its owners are entitled to compensation from the municipality for advertising complaint - a total of 850,000 NIS.

In addition to a million shekels contractor Rami sturdy and girlfriend for part of the claim was received, Justice The municipality will also bear the plaintiffs' fee in the amount of NIS 230,000. Hasson and his company will bear Gendelman's legal expenses and the fee will be NIS 55,000. , And this is because the municipality's policy with the Phoenix Insurance Company does not cover a breach of the publication agreement of a spokesperson who has malicious intent.

"We are dealing with a very long verdict, for which I apologize," Judge Hananel Sharabi signed his decision, which is spread over 313 pages.

"We dealt with five not-so-simple grounds, each of which could have been a cause in itself for a complex statement of claim, which were joined together in a single statement of claim, 12 court hearings of which 10 evidentiary hearings and over 1,300 minutes of minutes."

Hadera Municipality Director General Brigadier General Mil Yaakov Zigdon (Photo: Shlomi Gabay)

Adv. Ilan Bombach who represented the contractor (Photo: official website, Reuven Kapuchinsky)

Advocate Ilan Bombach responded, "After winning a previous ruling in the amount of NIS 13.5 million for the aggravated conduct of the Hadera Municipality and the mayor towards Rami Hasson, the District Court sets a new standard for compensation for a libel lawsuit issued by a false spokesperson issued by a municipality. Knowingly. This is the highest amount decided in the country on a defamation lawsuit. The court places here a significant price tag for a person's good name and it is appropriate that this ruling be adopted by all the judges.

The Hadera municipality responded that "this is a lawsuit filed for a total of NIS 10 million when the court rejected most of it and in fact rejected 90% of it. The court also dismissed the personal lawsuit against the mayor and ordered the plaintiff to pay NIS 50,000 in expenses to Mr. Gandelman. The court rejected most of the causes of action, 5 in number and partially accepted only two of them.

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