New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments | LexChat

New Zealand Case Law

Co-publisher liability
  • 31 May 2021

    SMITH v KING [2021] NZHC 1252

    Citation
    [2021] NZHC 1252
    Court
    High Court

    The August 2020 and December 2020 Facebook publications bore the pleaded defamatory meanings and identified the plaintiff; Mr King was a publisher of both posts; Ms Keenan, as the Facebook page owner, had actual knowledge (including replying to the December post) and failed to remove the material within a reasonable time and thereby adopted responsibility; declaration of liability entered against both defendants and solicitor-client costs awarded under s 24(2); permanent injunction refused because restraint of expression was not justified on these facts.