COTTER v JOHN FAIRFAX PUBLICATIONS PTY LTD [2003] NSWSC 71

New South Wales Supreme Court

CITATION : COTTER v JOHN FAIRFAX PUBLICATIONS PTY LTD [2003] NSWSC 71 HEARING DATE(S) : 17 February 2003 JUDGMENT DATE : 17 February 2003

JUDGMENT OF : Levine J DECISION : See paragraphs 15 - 17

CATCHWORDS : Contextual imputations - capacity LEGISLATION CITED : Defamation Act 1974 CASES CITED : Whelan & Anor v John Fairfax Publications Pty Ltd & Ors [2002] NSWSC 1028 BARRY COTTER (Plaintiff)

PARTIES : v

JOHN FAIRFAX PUBLICATIONS PTY LTD (Defendant) FILE NUMBER(S) : SC 20360 OF 1997 T Molomby SC (Plaintiff) COUNSEL : T Blackburn (Defendant) Joseph C Capogreco & Associates (Plaintiff) SOLICITORS : Freehills (Defendant)

- 1 - Ex tempore: revised IN THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COMMON LAW DIVISION DEFAMATION LIST

JUSTICE DAVID LEVINE

MONDAY 17 FEBRUARY 2003

20360 OF 1997

BARRY COTTER (Plaintiff)

v

JOHN FAIRFAX PUBLICATIONS PTY LTD (Defendant)

JUDGMENT (contextual imputations - capacity) 1 In June of 2001 a jury found that an article published in The Sydney Morning Herald on 11 April 1997 in fact carried the following three imputations defamatory of the plaintiff: (b) that he sought, by attending as Mayor of Marrickville a meeting of a project team of which he was not a member, to influence the decision of that team in favour of an architect with whom he had a private business relationship; (d) that there are reasonable grounds to suspect that as a member of Marrickville Council he has engaged over a period of ten years in business and property deals which have conflicted with his duty as a member of council; (f) that as Mayor of Marrickville he had deliberately conducted himself in relation to the council civic centre development as to give a financial benefit to an architect with whom he had a private business relationship.