Creighton v Nationwide News Pty Ltd [2010] NSWDC 11

Creighton v Nationwide News Pty Ltd [2010] NSWDC 11

The knowledge and condonation imputations, including the hypocrisy imputation, were sufficiently borderline and connected to the words, tone and presentation of the publications to be left to the tribunal of fact. However, the pleaded bad-parent imputations were not true fallback imputations and were struck out with leave to replead. The imputation that the first plaintiff was a key player in the farce of the NSW prison system was not capable of being conveyed, the embarrassment-to-department imputation did not differ in substance from the embarrassment-to-Commissioner imputation or was not conveyed in the Internet publication, and the dereliction-of-duty imputation was not conveyed.

Jurisdiction
Australia
Judgment Date
19 February 2010
Procedural Posture
Defamation Proceedings / Application Concerning Form and Capacity of Pleaded Imputations and Leave to Amend Statement of Claim
Outcome
Leave to file a Further Amended Statement of Claim granted; several imputations struck out, some with leave to replead; plaintiffs ordered to pay defendants' costs; matter stood over for further directions.
Legal Topics
['defamatory Imputations' 'form and Capacity' 'borderline Imputations' 'strike Out' 'leave to Replead']
['tort' 'defamation'] ['defamatory Imputations' 'form and Capacity' 'borderline Imputations' 'strike Out' 'leave to Replead']

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Procedural Posture

Defamation Proceedings / Application Concerning Form and Capacity of Pleaded Imputations and Leave to Amend Statement of Claim

Legal Issues

  1. 1 ['Whether imputations pleaded from the newspaper and Internet publications were capable of being conveyed.' 'Whether pleaded fallback imputations were properly formulated as fallback imputations.' 'Whether particular imputations differed in substance from other pleaded imputations.' 'Whether imputations concerning dereliction of duty, embarrassment to Corrective Services, and being a key player in a prison-system farce were capable of arising from the matters complained of.']

Ratio Decidendi

The knowledge and condonation imputations, including the hypocrisy imputation, were sufficiently borderline and connected to the words, tone and presentation of the publications to be left to the tribunal of fact. However, the pleaded bad-parent imputations were not true fallback imputations and were struck out with leave to replead. The imputation that the first plaintiff was a key player in the farce of the NSW prison system was not capable of being conveyed, the embarrassment-to-department imputation did not differ in substance from the embarrassment-to-Commissioner imputation or was not conveyed in the Internet publication, and the dereliction-of-duty imputation was not conveyed.

Court Disposition

Leave to file a Further Amended Statement of Claim granted; several imputations struck out, some with leave to replead; plaintiffs ordered to pay defendants' costs; matter stood over for further directions.

Orders

  • ['Grant leave to the plaintiff to file a Further Amended Statement of Claim by 4:00pm Friday 26 February 2010.' 'Orders striking out imputations 7(c) and (m) with leave to replead.' 'Strike out imputations (f), (h) and (j) in the first publication.' 'By reason of the identical nature of the second publication to the...