The case was heard by Mr Justice Bean, without a jury. The judge found that Mr Modi had "singularly failed" to provide any reliable evidence that Mr Cairns was involved in match-fixing, nor even of there being strong grounds for suspicion. Mr Justice Bean regarded the allegation as being as "serious as anyone could make against a professional sportsman". The tweet had been picked up by cricket website Cricinfo, which on receipt of a complaint from Mr Cairns withdrew its report, paid damages and apologised. Mr Modi however maintained that the charge was true and declined to apologise.
Mr Modi was granted permission to appeal over the level of damages, but refused permission to appeal on the question of liability. He was ordered to pay £400,000 on account of costs.
The original tweet was only receieved by 65 followers, though the second publication on Cricinfo was seen by some 1000 people. Mr Justice Bean said that limited publication did not mean the reduction of damages to trivial amounts. Although the starting point for damages was £75,000, this was raised to £90,000 because of the sustained and aggressive assertion of justification at the trial.
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