The Supreme Court declares an attack on the honor and dignity of a handball referee the insults that two people published against him on the Facebook page of the Canarian sports club Chinijos Costa Teguise, after suspending a children’s handball matchbecause he considered that Some of the children’s glasses were not suitable for sports.
The high court, which condemns them to compensate him with 12,000 euros, explain what They did not limit themselves to criticizing the suspension of the handball match, but they dedicated themselves “to disqualifying him in his personal and professional sphere as a local police officer, in an absolutely disproportionate manner.”“, for the objective meaning of the phrases uttered and for the absence of connection with his arbitration performance, in which he also does not have to endure notoriously insulting comments.”
The arbitrator sued four people whom he claimedto compensation of 30,000 euros as they considered their fundamental right to honor violated as a result of the comments they had made on the Facebook page of the club. A court in Arrecife (Lanzarote) sentenced three of the defendants to compensate him with 18,000 euros and acquitted the fourth, considering that the plaintiff had renounced the action brought against him. The ruling also ordered the withdrawal of the harmful comments and ordered the defendants to publish the ruling on their respective Facebook accounts.
The Provincial Court of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria convicted two of the defendants and acquitted the third, which meant reducing the compensation to 12,000 euros, a resolution now confirmed by the Supreme Court, which highlights some of the comments they made: “The problem is that this person is full of frustrations and in uniform she is a danger to citizens on foot, players and the like. Your arrogance and lack of empathy will take its toll on you, You already do it within the police and you also break the hopes of some children for the mere fact of feeling important”; “He had a very screwed up childhood and as an adult all that hatred he carries inside comes out, I feel sorry for him”; “I think he has always lacked love, for someone to love him and 21 cm would be great for him”; “The truth is that it is a poor bastard in uniform, whose only argument is ‘I’m in charge here’ and there’s nothing more“But hey, he’s gaining friends with his arrogance and arrogance,” and “the poor guy is sick, he has little insight, we should campaign to raise money and pay for a doctor for this subnormal.”
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The Supreme Court concludes that ““These expressions exceed the limits of freedom of expression to frontally attack the honor of the plaintiff and his dignity as a person.” He adds that “The identification of the recipient of the offenses does not require their designation with names and surnames, when this is possible, even for people in their closest circle, due to indirect references or concurrent circumstances. and, in this case, the comments made, such as your status as referee of a specific match and that of his profession as a local police officer, “They allow the personal individualization of the plaintiff.”
The Chamber rejects the reason for the appeals that the amount of compensation is disproportionate, since no objective or moral damages have been proven. In this regard, the magistrates indicate that the appealed sentences “appreciate the objective and serious content of the accusations made, which not only affect the sporting field, but also transcend the plaintiff’s professional life, as well as aspects of his childhood and private life.“, with the corresponding moral damage they entail, the repercussions they generated, as well as their dissemination on social networks.”