Council bid to kill Bright case

Penny Bright at her home in Kingsland, Auckland. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Auckland Council has applied to have Penny Bright's defamation proceedings struck out, after racking up more than $100,000 on lawyers in an ongoing battle over her $33,372 unpaid rates and penalties.

Yesterday the Herald revealed the council had incurred legal costs of $6416 and "significant" in-house costs to ratepayers for trying to recover Ms Bright's unpaid rates, which have been owing since 2007.

The council has hired Simpson Grierson senior litigation partner William Akel to fight a defamation claim by Ms Bright and has since spent a further $104,349 on external lawyers.

Ms Bright has filed a claim for damages of $350,000 against council chief executive Stephen Town for comments that he made last year about her.

She told the Herald it was outrageous for the council to spend $104,349 on lawyers when she had offered to settle the matter if she received a retraction, apology and damages of $10,000.

Yesterday the council said it had applied to have Ms Bright's defamation proceedings struck out. It said the matter was to be heard by the High Court on November 5.

The media release said Ms Bright had refused repeated offers to resolve the outstanding rates in a manner which would avoid her incurring financial hardship or the sale of her house.

Finance general manager Kevin Ramsay said: "Auckland Council did not initiate these defamation proceedings but clearly we need to respond to the claims Ms Bright has made. We believe the views expressed about Ms Bright were fair and accurate, and we completely reject the accusations she has made.

"Ms Bright's offer to settle the defamation case with an apology and a payment to her of $10,000 was unacceptable from our perspective. It is open to Ms Bright to stop the court action at any time without further unnecessary costs to ratepayers.

"Costs will be sought if the application succeeds."