Lee v Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd (No. 3) [2015] NSWDC 142

District Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Lee v Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd (No. 3) [2015] NSWDC 142 Hearing dates: 04 June 2015 Date of orders: 04 June 2015 Decision date: 04 June 2015 Jurisdiction: Civil Before: Gibson DCJ Decision: (1) Grant leave to the defendants to file an Amended Defence by 17 June 2015 including additional particulars of justification and amending contextual imputations to read: "(1) The Plaintiff was a person of interest in the investigation of the murder of Joo Won Choi. (2) The Plaintiff had so conducted himself as to warrant investigation by the police as a person of interest in the murder of Joo Won Choi. (3) The Plaintiff had so conducted himself as to warrant investigation by the police as to whether he had committed fraud." (2) Extend time for the plaintiff to provide answers to particulars of the Reply to 17 June 2015. (3) Grant the plaintiff leave to administer fresh interrogatories after provision of the Amended Defence. (4) Matter listed in the Defamation List on Thursday 18 June 2015 at 9:00am. (5) Costs reserved. Catchwords: TORT – defamation – form and capacity of contextual imputations – whether defendant can plead contextual imputations of lesser seriousness – whether the contextual imputations differed in substance from each other and from the plaintiff's imputations – adequacy of particulars of justification Legislation Cited: Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW), r 14.28(1) Defamation Act 1974 (NSW), s 16 Defamation Act 2005 (NSW), s 25 Cases Cited: Ange v Fairfax Media Publications [2011] NSWSC 204 Fogarty v Nationwide News Pty Ltd [2013] WASC 477 Hepburn v TCN Channel Nine Pty Ltd [1984] 1 NSWLR 386 Hyndes v Nationwide News Pty Limited [2011] NSWSC 633 Kelly v Harbour Radio Pty Ltd [2013] NSWSC 9 Liu v Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd [2013] NSWSC 7 MacDonald v Australian Broadcasting Corporation [2014] NSWSC 1472 Sims v Wran [1984] 1 NSWLR 317 Singleton v Ffrench (1986) 5 NSWLR 425 Tauaifaga v TCN Channel Nine Pty Ltd [2013] NSWSC 8 Category: Procedural and other rulings Parties: Plaintiff: Albert Lee First Defendant: Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd Second Defendant: Rachel Olding Representation: Counsel: Plaintiff: Mr R Rasmussen Defendants: Mr T Blackburn SC / Mrs L Barnett