8 Dec 2023
Leave to issue third party notices was declined because granting leave would cause material delay and disruption to the proceedings, the defendant had acted inconsistently with rules and directions (including filing notices without leave), many draft claims were skeletal raising novel issues, and the interests of justice did not favour joinder.
29 Mar 2023
The Court found the publications (read in context) conveyed that Craig sexually harassed MacGregor and, applying established tests for meaning and sexual harassment, concluded on the balance of probabilities that Craig had sexually harassed MacGregor; because defendant proved truth of the pleaded defamatory meaning the defamation claim failed and other defences and damages did not require determination.
13 Mar 2023
Court struck out only sub‑paras 67(j) and (gg) of the defence because in context the terms 'underaged' and 'minor' could only reasonably mean statutory under‑16 persons and it was common ground the women were over 16, so the truth defence on that limb cannot succeed; the court refused to strike out the honest opinion and qualified privilege defences because the meanings of the publications and whether they are opinion or responsible public‑interest communication depend on context and evidence and are matters for trial (jury/judge), not for resolution at strike‑out stage.
7 Mar 2023
Costs follow the event: defendant Bain is awarded scale costs for the substantive proceeding with specified amendments to the schedule, disbursements of $9,068, and a 25% uplift on specified trial preparation steps (not the 50% claimed); interlocutory costs for the three linked applications are awarded to the plaintiff in the sum of $13,384; costs are not reserved pending appeal and reductions under r14.7 are not warranted on the facts.
3 Mar 2023
Although the Article addressed matters of public interest (conduct of athletes, ESNZ complaints process), the defendants failed the responsible communication limb: the defamatory allegations were serious, not necessary to the public interest material, defendants did not fairly and squarely seek the plaintiff's response or allow adequate time, there was no sufficient urgency, and the publication was misleading in context; accordingly the Durie public interest defence fails and judgment entered for the plaintiff.
2 Jun 2021
The Court held the second defendant is not required to answer the challenged interrogatories: s 68(1) protects disclosure of confidential sources and the plaintiff failed to show under s 68(2) that the public interest in disclosure outweighed the likely adverse effects and the public interest in media source protection; rule 8.46 independently bars interrogatories into sources or grounds of belief in defamation proceedings unless necessary in the interests of justice and the plaintiff did not establish necessity; specified interrogatories were also objectionable under r 8.40(1)(d) and r 8.40(…
4 May 2021
The appeal is dismissed. The Court upheld the High Court finding that Mr Craig sexually harassed Ms MacGregor (consistent with this Court's earlier decision in Craig v Slater) and rejected appellant's attempt to relitigate the same factual conclusion absent materially different evidence. The Court held reply-to-attack qualified privilege is not defeated merely because the original attack was true, but it is lost where the defendant took improper advantage of the occasion, lacked honest belief, acted with ill will or adopted an improper purpose. Here the appellant exceeded the permissible scop…
10 Apr 2019
The application was refused because the impugned statements were not shown to be unarguably defamatory, the defendant's pleaded defences (honest opinion, statutory qualified privilege and public interest/responsible communication) had a real prospect of success, damages would be an adequate remedy, the applicant delayed and the proposed order was futile given amendment and prior widespread publication; overall justice favoured refusal and costs were awarded to the defendant.
5 Dec 2018
Associate Judge concluded the challenged reply paragraphs pleaded evidence but were not prejudicial and declined to strike them out; ordered plaintiff to provide further particulars for allegations of defendants' state of mind under r5.17(2); exercised discretion under r5.45 to order staged security for costs of NZD 50,000 (half payable after the directed conference and half on close of pleadings) with leave reserved to seek additional security; directed a one-day judicial settlement conference after 1 February 2019 and timetabled exchange of position statements; reserved costs of the interlo…
31 Jul 2018
The Court recognised a new common law defence of responsible communication on matters of public interest available to any publisher where (1) the subject matter is of public interest and (2) the communication was responsible; the judge determines both elements; Lange's political qualified privilege is subsumed into this defence; reportage is not a separate defence in the majority view but may form part of the spectrum; on the facts references to 'qualified privilege', 'Lange v Atkinson' and 'reportage' were struck from the pleaded defence and the public interest defence in relation to the fir…