Ghosh v Google Australia Pty Ltd [2013] NSWDC 146

District Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Ghosh v Google Australia Pty Ltd [2013] NSWDC 146 Hearing dates: 16 August 2013; further submissions 19 August 2013 Decision date: 20 August 2013 Jurisdiction: Civil Before: Gibson DCJ Decision: (1) Plaintiff's claim against the first defendant, Google Australia Pty Ltd, is struck out and dismissed pursuant to UCPR r 13.4. (2) The plaintiff pay Google Australia Pty Ltd's costs of the proceedings. (3) The plaintiff have leave to file and serve an amended statement of claim, such amendments to include deleting any claim against Google Australia Pty Ltd, by 20 September 2013. (4) The amended statement of claim must be personally served on each of the defendants named therein, together with a copy of this judgment. (5) These proceedings stood over for directions to the District Court (Newcastle) on 10 October 2013 for consideration of any application that these proceedings should travel together with proceedings number 2013/88183. Catchwords: TORT - defamation - publications on internet - application for summary dismissal of the claim by Google Australia Pty Ltd for - whether local subsidiary company can be considered as the publisher of material on websites published by a foreign holding company - principles concerning liability as publisher - proceedings summarily dismissed. Legislation Cited: Local Court Act 1982 (NSW), s 33(1)(b) Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW), rr 10.20(2)(a), 13.4 Cases Cited: A v Google New Zealand [2012] NZHC 2352 Duffy v Google Inc [2011] SADC 178 McKeogh v John Doe 1 & Ors [2012] IEHC 95 Metropolitan Schools Ltd (t/as Skillstrain and/or Train2game) v Designtechnica Corporation (t/as Design Trends), Google UK and Google Inc [2009] EWHC 1765 MX v Google Inc, Eric S, Google France (Paris Tribunal de Grande Instance, decision of 8 September 2010) Rana v Google Australia Pty Ltd [2013] FCA 60 Roadshow Films Pty Ltd v iiNet Ltd (2012) 286 ALR 466 Sadiq v Baycorp (NZ) Ltd [2008] NZHC 403 Tamiz v Google Inc and Google UK Ltd [2012] EWHC 449 Trkjula v Google Inc (No 2) [2010] VSC 490 Trkjula v Google Inc (No 5) [2012] VSC 533 Texts Cited: - Category: Interlocutory applications Parties: Plaintiff: Dr Ratna Ghosh First Defendant: Google Australia Pty Ltd (ACN 102 417 032) Second Defendant: Rodney Miller Third Defendant: Everinghammiller.com Fourth Defendant: Marilyn Bee Fifth Defendant: Michael Ryan Sixth Defendant: John Bee Seventh Defendant: Adam Josef Schuch Eighth Defendant: Karen Schuch Representation: Plaintiff: Dr R Ghosh (in person) Defendants: Ms L Brown Plaintiff: Dr R Ghosh (in person) Defendants: Ashurst Australia Lawyers File Number(s): 2013/238215 Publication restriction: None