Tribe v Simmons [2021] FCA 930

Federal Court of Australia

Tribe v Simmons [2021] FCA 930 File number: NSD 322 of 2021

Judgment of: LEE J

Date of judgment: 3 August 2021

Catchwords: DEFAMATION – defamation proceeding brought by Mr Tribe, the half-brother of apparently famous basketballer Ben Simmons, against his half-sister, Ms Simmons – publication concerns a series of tweets by Ms Simmons alleging Mr Tribe sexually assaulted her at a young age – where no defence filed despite Ms Simmons foreshadowing a justification defence – multiple extensions of time – where pro bono counsel appointed to assist Ms Simmons with the drafting of a defence – where Ms Simmons ultimately decided it was not in her interests to defend the proceeding – application for default judgment – appropriate for the Court to consider the legal question as to whether the matters complained of are reasonably capable of conveying the pleaded imputations – only necessary to establish that one of the pleaded imputations in respect of each publication is capable of being found to have been conveyed – each publication defamatory despite one infelicity – default judgment entered – interlocutory injunction ordered pending final hearing

Legislation: Federal Court Rules 2011 (Cth) rr 5.23, 16.07

Cases cited: Szymczak v Balijepalli (No 2) [2019] FCA 1093 Al Muderis v Duncan [2016] NSWSC 1726 Graham v Powell (No 3) [2014] NSWSC 185 Goodfellow v Fairfax Media Publications Pty Limited [2017] FCA 1152

Division: General Division

Registry: New South Wales

National Practice Area: Other Federal Jurisdiction

Number of paragraphs: 29