Mohammed v Nationwide News Pty Ltd (No 2) [2016] NSWSC 1365

Mohammed v Nationwide News Pty Ltd (No 2) [2016] NSWSC 1365

The plaintiff's application was partly successful. Contextual imputations C and D were not shown to be incapable of arising and were allowed to remain. No order was made on contextual imputation A because the Court raised preliminary concerns about ambiguity and rhetorical form and afforded the defendants an opportunity to be heard. The Court held that some particulars could remain because they were capable of informing inferences relevant to the truth defences, but particulars 11.9 to 11.12 would be struck out because proving the Parramatta shooting was a terrorist attack would cause undue delay, and particulars 13.2 would be struck out because public figures' condemnation of the...

Jurisdiction
Australia
Judgment Date
16 September 2016
Procedural Posture
Defamation Proceedings / Interlocutory Application Concerning Objections to the Defence and Particulars
Outcome
Plaintiff's objections to the defence were allowed in part; parties were directed to provide agreed short minutes reflecting the rulings, and the proceedings were referred to the Registrar's call-over list.
Legal Topics
['contextual Truth' 'contextual Imputations' 'strike Out Application' 'particulars of Truth' 'proportionality' 'defamation List Procedure']
['defamation' 'civil Procedure'] ['contextual Truth' 'contextual Imputations' 'strike Out Application' 'particulars of Truth' 'proportionality' 'defamation List Procedure']

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Procedural Posture

Defamation Proceedings / Interlocutory Application Concerning Objections to the Defence and Particulars

Legal Issues

  1. 1 ['Whether three pleaded contextual imputations were incapable of being conveyed and should be struck out.' 'Whether particulars of truth should be struck out as incapable of proving the truth of pleaded imputations.' 'Whether the truth defence to particular imputations was unarguable on the particulars pleaded.' 'Whether the Court may strike out particulars where their relevance is insufficient to justify the prejudice, embarrassment or delay of meeting them.']

Ratio Decidendi

The plaintiff's application was partly successful. Contextual imputations C and D were not shown to be incapable of arising and were allowed to remain. No order was made on contextual imputation A because the Court raised preliminary concerns about ambiguity and rhetorical form and afforded the defendants an opportunity to be heard. The Court held that some particulars could remain because they were capable of informing inferences relevant to the truth defences, but particulars 11.9 to 11.12 would be struck out because proving the Parramatta shooting was a terrorist attack would cause undue delay, and particulars 13.2 would be struck out because public figures' condemnation of the...

Court Disposition

Plaintiff's objections to the defence were allowed in part; parties were directed to provide agreed short minutes reflecting the rulings, and the proceedings were referred to the Registrar's call-over list.

Orders

  • ['I direct the parties to provide to my Associate agreed short minutes reflecting these rulings by close of business on 22 September 2016.' "I refer the proceedings to the Registrar's call-over list on 23 September 2016."]