Coyne v Citizen Finance Ltd [1991] HCA 10

High Court of Australia Mason C.J. Deane, Dawson, Toohey and McHugh JJ. Coyne v Citizen Finance Ltd [1991] HCA 10

ORDER Appeal allowed with costs. Set aside the orders of the Full Court of the Supreme Court of Western Australia and in lieu thereof order that the appeal to that Court be dismissed with costs. Application for special leave to cross-appeal refused with costs.

Cur. adv. vult.

The following written judgments were delivered:—

1991, April 18 Mason C.J. and Deane J.

The question for decision in this appeal is whether the Full Court of the Supreme Court of Western Australia (Brinsden and Kennedy JJ., Malcolm C.J. dissenting) was in error in setting aside an award of $150,000 damages made by a jury in favour of the appellant ("the plaintiff") in an action for defamation against the respondent company ("the defendant"). Each member of the Full Court thought that the damages exceeded the amount which he himself would have assessed as appropriate to the circumstances. The difference between their Honours was that the Chief Justice dissented from the conclusion of the majority that the amount awarded was so excessive that the case was a proper one for the intervention of the Full Court.

A decision by an appellate court that a jury's award of damages for defamation should not be allowed to stand necessarily involves an element of value judgment. Such a decision may properly be influenced by local community circumstances and standards about which a member of a State or Territory Supreme Court will ordinarily be much better informed than a member of this Court. The question for this Court on an appeal from the Full Court's decision in such a case is whether the Full Court fell into error in reaching the conclusion that it did. In resolving that question, it is important that this Court give due weight to the views of the local Full Court about the permissible range of damages in the circumstances of a particular case before superimposing its own views. It is also important to identify with some precision the question which arose for the determination of the Full Court.