Lam v Nationwide News Pty Ltd [2000] NSWSC 792

New South Wales Supreme Court

CITATION : Lam v Nationwide News Pty Ltd [2000] NSWSC 792 CURRENT JURISDICTION: Common Law FILE NUMBER(S) : SC 20109/97 HEARING DATE(S) : 26 June-28 June 2000, 6 July 2000 JUDGMENT DATE : 11 August 2000

PARTIES : Le Lam (Plaintiff) Nationwide News Pty Limited (Defendant) JUDGMENT OF : Studdert J

COUNSEL : R. Campbell/W. Andrews (Plaintiff) T.S. Hale SC/ E.A. White (Defendant) SOLICITORS : Greenaway & Tohme (Plaintiff) Cropper Parkhill (Defendant) LEGISLATION CITED : Defamation Act Lange v Australian Broadcasting Corporation (1997) 189 CLR 520 Austin v Mirror Newspapers (1985) 3 NSWLR 354 Morgan v John Fairfax & Sons Limited (1991) 23 NSWLR 374 Hunt v Star Newspaper Co. Limited [1908] 2 KB 309 CASES CITED : Thompson v Truth and Sportsman Limited (1934) 34 SR 21 Kemsley v Foot [1952] AC 345 Pervan v North Queensland Newspaper Co. (1992-1993) 178 CLR 309 Goldsborough v John Fairfax & Sons Limited (1934) 34 SR 524 Broome v Cassell & Co Limited [1972] AC 1027 Carson v John Fairfax & Sons Limited (1993) 178 CLR 44 DECISION : See para 58

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COMMON LAW DIVISION

STUDDERT J

Friday 11 August 2000 20109/97 LE LAM v NATIONWIDE NEWS PTY LIMITED

JUDGMENT

1 HIS HONOUR: In this cause Le Lam seeks damages from Nationwide News Pty Limited, claiming to have been defamed in an item published in the Parramatta Advertiser on 9 May 1996. 2 Earlier this year, on 3 February 2000, a jury determined in the plaintiff's favour that the newspaper article conveyed the following imputation which it found to be defamatory of the plaintiff: "That she is reasonably suspected of obtaining a dishonest financial benefit for herself through her office as Deputy Mayor of the Auburn Council in CIA Real Estate's procurement of a tender with that Council." 3 In the further hearing before this Court the defendant relied upon defences of qualified privilege at common law and under s 22 of the Defamation Act, and the plaintiff, by way of reply, pleaded malice. I state the issues arising on the pleadings very shortly at this stage, but, of course, it will be necessary to return to consider them in detail later. 4 The Parramatta Advertiser is circulated in Auburn, Berala, Clyde, Granville, Homebush Bay, Lidcombe, Regents Park, Rookwood, Silverwater, Woodville, parts of Chester Hill, Flemington and Sefton. Answers to interrogatories disclose that 29,000 copies of the edition published on 8 May 1996 were circulated. That edition had a front page item under a prominent banner: "'IMMORAL' DEAL Row over council decision" 5 The text of the article, to the extent that it appeared on p 1, was as follows, and I number the paragraphs for ease of reference: "1. The Independent Commission Against Corruption will assess a controversial Auburn Council tender awarded to the deputy mayor's real estate agency last week. 2. In confidential session, council endorsed CIA Real Estate's tender to manage 16 council properties, understood to be worth about $15,000 over three years.