Bruno Rufa flanked by his lawyers Fred Smith QC (left) and Carey Leonard, of Callenders and Co, at an earlier hearing. Photo: Denise Maycock/Tribune Staff
CANADIAN resident Bruno Rufa has filed a defamation lawsuit in the Supreme Court concerning allegations published by a Bahamian in an online petition early last year.
The action was filed on January 12, through his attorney Fred Smith, QC, who is senior partner at the law firm of Callenders & Co.
Mr. Rufa, the plaintiff, is claiming damages for libel, including aggravated damages against Moses Daxon, the defendant. He is also seeking an injunction restraining Mr. Daxon from making any further defamatory statements.
The Canadian citizen has been an owner at the Coral Beach Condominiums for the last 15 years and elected president of the Coral Beach Management Company Ltd since 2005.
In the writ of summons, Mr. Rufa claims that Mr. Daxon, a Bahamian condo owner at Coral Beach, on February 6, 2015, defamed him in a petition entitled: “We request the honourable minister to deem Bruno Rufa, a Canadian citizen, an undesirable and deport him from The Bahamas.”
The petition was published on the website www.change.org and was also accompanied by a photograph of Mr. Rufa.
According to the statement of claim, the defendant published that Mr. Rufa had broken Bahamian laws and made death threats to Bahamians and tourists.
It was also claimed that Mr. Daxon was responsible for defamatory comments about Mr. Rufa that appeared in an article, “Deported Canadian national Rufa back before courts almost a decade later” published in a local newspaper and in comments that appeared beneath an article in the same local newspaper.
It is claimed that the defendant’s publications have seriously damaged the plaintiff’s character and his personal and professional reputation. In the writ, it is claimed that Mr. Daxon is normally a resident in Florida, but visits the Bahamas throughout the year. Mr. Rufa is seeking an injunction restraining the defendant from further publishing defamatory remarks.
Last year, Mr. Rufa was charged with working illegally in Freeport.
That matter is still before the court.
By DENISE MAYCOCK
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