Ainsworth v Burden [2000] NSWSC 105

New South Wales Supreme Court

CITATION : Ainsworth v Burden [2000] NSWSC 105 CURRENT JURISDICTION: Common Law FILE NUMBER(S) : SC 21216/96 HEARING DATE(S) : 9 July 1999 JUDGMENT DATE : 2 March 2000

PARTIES : Leonard Hastings Ainsworth - Plaintiff Leslie James burden - Defendant JUDGMENT OF : Simpson J at 1

COUNSEL : T D Blackburn - Plaintiff J Gibson - Defendant SOLICITORS : Barker Gosling - Plaintiff Carters Law Firm - Defendant Singleton v Ffrench (1986) 5 NSWLR 425 CASES CITED : Morris v Mirror Newspapers Limited (1985) 1 NSWLR 260 McCormick v John Fairfax and Sons Ltd (1989) 16 NSWLR 485 Mirror Newspapers Ltd v Harrison (1983) 149 CLR 293 DECISION : None of the challenges to the statement of claim has been made good; the defendant should pay the plaintiff's costs of the application.

THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COMMON LAW DIVISION

SIMPSON J

2 March 2000

21216/96

Leonard Hastings AINSWORTH v Leslie James BURDEN Judgment

HER HONOUR : 1 The plaintiff sues the defendant for defamatory imputations that he alleges arise out of the publication of a letter the defendant wrote in 1993 to the then Minister for Police in NSW. 2 In the letter the defendant identified himself as a former senior police officer and referred to earlier defamation proceedings in which, he said, the present plaintiff had sued another former police officer. The tenor of the letter was to urge the Minister to investigate certain issues that the defendant said had arisen in that case. Several paragraphs of the letter are particularly material for present purposes. They are: "As the former Commander of the Licensing Investigative Unit, I found it quite extraordinary that the said proceedings, involving the most high profile person to be involvedin (sic) poker machines in the country, wass (sic) not monitored, and further that no effort has apparently bene (sic) made to approach Mr H an5rahan (sic) for permission to obtain a transcript of the evidence given by Messrs Ainsworth and Landa and exhibits, for detailed analysis, as to raising the questions of Mr Ainsworth's suitability to continue to be involved in the management of the licensed company, Ainsworth Nominees Pty Limited and to have a financial interest therein. … … …