Gorman v Australasian Medical Publishing Company Pty Ltd [2002] NSWSC 701

New South Wales Supreme Court

CITATION : Gorman v Australasian Medical Publishing Company Pty Ltd [2002] NSWSC 701 CURRENT JURISDICTION: Common Law FILE NUMBER(S) : SC 11753/02 HEARING DATE(S) : 29/07/02 JUDGMENT DATE : 31 July 2002

PARTIES : Richard Francis GORMAN v Australasian Medical Publishing Company Pty Ltd JUDGMENT OF : Barr J at 1

COUNSEL : Plaintiff: In Person Defendant: Mr J Halley SOLICITORS : Plaintiff: In Person Defendant: Blake Dawson Waldron DECISION : Order that the amended summons be dismissed and that there be judgment for the defendant. Order the plaintiff to pay the defendant's costs.

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COMMON LAW DIVISION

GRAHAM BARR J

Wednesday, 31 July 2002

11753/02 – RICHARD FRANCIS GORMAN v AUSTRALASIAN MEDICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY PTY LTD

JUDGMENT 1 BARR J: By his summons the plaintiff claims a declaration against each of eight defendants in the following terms – that defendants acted unreasonably, and indirectly damaged his reputation and impeded the achievement of his professional goal, by malicious censorship of "the tunnel vision information" from public awareness, when they chose not to publish his "Letter to the Editor" referred to as "Complementary and alternative medicine commonly used by cancer patients" in the letters of refusal to publish, dated 1/3/02 and 9/4/02.

2 By his amended summons, filed by leave on 29 July 2002, the plaintiff has confined his claim to a declaration of the same nature against the only remaining defendant, Australasian Medical Publishing Company Pty Ltd. 3 The defendant is the publisher of the Medical Journal of Australia, the journal of the Australian Medical Association Limited. I shall call it "the Journal". The plaintiff is a legally qualified medical practitioner. The evidence does not plainly say so, but I think that he probably carries on practice as a chiropractor. He undoubtedly has an abiding interest in the practice of spinal manipulation. For years now he has been writing to the editor of the Journal offering papers for publication and the editor has been rejecting them.