Rothe v Scott (No. 2) [2015] NSWDC 143

District Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Rothe v Scott (No. 2) [2015] NSWDC 143 Hearing dates: 30 July 2015 Date of orders: 30 July 2015 Decision date: 30 July 2015 Jurisdiction: Civil Before: Gibson DCJ Decision: See paragraph 22 Catchwords: TORT - defamation - defence of justification struck out as hopelessly pleaded, following a refusal to answer a request for particulars - application to reinstate defence of justification to two of three imputations pleaded, on the basis that the plaintiff should be able to provide the particulars at some later stage following discovery, interrogatories and subpoenae to unknown third parties - repleaded particulars consisted of one sentence repeating the gist of the matter complained of and hopeless on its face - longstanding rule that a defendant is not entitled to discovery before delivering particulars of a plea of justification - no evidence of fresh material recently discovered or other grounds for bringing this application a second time - application to reinstate defence of justification refused Legislation Cited: Defamation Act 2005 (NSW), s 25 Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW), r 14.28 Cases Cited: Amalgamated Television Services Pty Ltd v Marsden [1999] NSWCA 313 Kingsfield Holdings Pty Ltd v Sullivan Commercial Pty Ltd [2013] WASC 347 Marshall v Smith [2013] WASC 432 Rothe v Scott [2015] NSWDC 105 Sali v Australian Broadcasting Corporation (No 2) [2013] VSC 719 Sims v Wran [1984] 1 NSWLR 317 Wootton v Sievier [1913] 3 KB 499 Texts Cited: Tobin & Sexton, Australian Defamation Law and Practice (LexisNexis) Brown on Defamation in Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and the United States (Carswell)Click here to enter text. Category: Procedural and other rulings Parties: Plaintiff: Kenneth Rothe Defendant: David Scott Representation: Counsel: Plaintiff: Mr C J Dibb Defendant: Mr B Goldsmith