Harb v Trustees of the Christian Brothers trading as St Patrick’s College Strathfield [2016] NSWDC 90

District Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Harb v Trustees of the Christian Brothers trading as St Patrick's College Strathfield [2016] NSWDC 90 Hearing dates: 28 April 2016 Date of orders: 28 April 2016 Decision date: 27 May 2016 Jurisdiction: Civil Before: Gibson DCJ Decision: (1) Strike out imputations (a) and (c) and in lieu permit the plaintiff to plead "the plaintiff is a traitor in that he betrays his friends and colleagues". (2) Imputation (d) is struck out as incapable of arising. (3) Plaintiff to serve amended statement of claim in 7 days. (4) Defendants to file and serve their defence(s) 21 days after receipt of the amended statement of claim. (5) Plaintiff pay defendants' costs of the imputations argument. (6) Matter stood over to the Defamation List on 2 June 2016 for further directions. Catchwords: TORT – defamation – imputations – form and capacity – "Judas" – whether imputations differ in substance Legislation Cited: Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW), r 28.2 Cases Cited: Ager v Canjex Publishing Ltd 16 CCLT (3d) 188 2003 CarswellBC 1406, 2003 BCSC 891 Ager v Canjex Publishing Ltd (2005) 259 DLR (4th) 727 Berezovsky v Forbes [2001] EWCA Civ 1251 Communications Workers, Local 8611 v Archibeque 105 N.M. 635, 735 P. 2d 1141 (S. Ct. 1987) Corby v Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd [2014] NSWCA 227 Drummoyne Municipal Council v Australian Broadcasting Corporation (1990) 21 NSWLR 135 Geary v Alger (1925) 57 O.L.R. 218 Lawson v Thompson (1968) 66 WWR 427; (1969) 69 WWR 304 (BCCA) New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council v Perkins (1998) 45 NSWLR 340 Younan v Nationwide News Pty Ltd[2013] NSWCA 335 Texts Cited: D. L. Jeffrey, ed., "A Dictionary of Biblical Tradition in English Literature", 1992, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. R. E. Brown, Brown on Defamation (Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, United States) (2nd Ed., Carswell) Category: Procedural and other rulings Parties: Plaintiff: George Harb First Defendant: Trustees of the Christian Brothers trading as St Patrick's College Strathfield (ACN 066 939 786) Second Defendant: Brian Roberts Representation: Counsel: Plaintiff: Mr R Rasmussen Defendants: Mr M Richardson