Australian Chinese Community Association of New South Wales Ltd v Pun [2017] NSWDC 55

District Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Australian Chinese Community Association of New South Wales Ltd v Pun [2017] NSWDC 55 Hearing dates: 9 March 2017 Date of orders: 09 March 2017 Decision date: 22 March 2017 Jurisdiction: Civil Before: Gibson DCJ Decision: (1) Strike out the particulars of aggravated damages in the Further Amended Statement of Claim. (2) Grant leave to the plaintiff to amend imputation 5(a)(i) to read "The plaintiff is an organisation in crisis, whose funds are repeatedly misappropriated." This imputation is reasonably capable of being conveyed. (3) Imputation 5(a)(ii), which has been withdrawn, is struck out. (4) Grant leave to the plaintiff to amend imputation 5(b) to use the word "several" in the place of "numerous"; this imputation is reasonably capable of being conveyed. (5) Imputation 5(c) is reasonably capable of being conveyed and defamatory. (6) Imputation 5(d) is reasonably capable of being conveyed. (7) Imputation 5(e) is reasonably capable of being conveyed and defamatory. (8) Imputation 5(f) is reasonably capable of being conveyed and defamatory. (9) Imputation 5(g) as amended ("The plaintiff is an organisation whose Board members have attempted to stack its membership list.") is reasonably capable of being conveyed. (10) Imputation 5(h) is reasonably capable of being conveyed. (11) Imputation 5(i) is reasonably capable of being conveyed. (12) Imputation 5(j) as amended ("The plaintiff is so dysfunctional an organisation that the President of the Board has knowingly tolerated the harassment of the senior staff member by the General Manager.") is reasonably capable of being conveyed. (13) Imputation 5(k) is reasonably capable of being conveyed. (14) Objections to the form of imputations 5(a) to 5(k), save for the amendments to the imputations noted above, dismissed. (15) Plaintiff's Second Further Amended Statement of Claim in 7 days. (16) Defence 6 weeks thereafter. (17) Matter stood over for further directions to Thursday 18 May 2017 in the Defamation List. (18) Defendants are to pay the plaintiff's costs of this application. Catchwords: TORT – defamation – imputations – form and capacity – imputations pleaded by a corporate entity Legislation Cited: Civil Procedure Act 2005 (NSW), ss 56 – 62 Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW), rr 14.30 and 28.2 Cases Cited: ABC v Comalco Ltd (1986) 12 FCR 510 Al Rajhi Banding & Investment Corp v Wall Street Journal Europe SPRL [2003] EWHC 1358 (QB) Chinese Herald Ltd v New Times Media Ltd [2004] NZLR 749 Corby v Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd [2014] NSWCA 227 Drummoyne Municipal Council v Australian Broadcasting Corporation (1991) 21 NSWLR 135 Fakhoury & Anor v John Fairfax Publications Pty Ltd [2003] NSWSC 561 Gant v The Age Pty Ltd [2011] VSC 169 Ghosh v Ninemsn Pty Ltd (2015) 90 NSWLR 595 Heli-Muster Pty Ltd v Johnson Wire Forming Pty Ltd (Supreme Court of New South Wales, 13 October 2000, unreported) Jameel (Yousef) v Dow Jones Inc [2005] EWCA Civ 75; [2005] QB 946; [2005] 2 WLR 1614 Kingsfield Holdings Pty Ltd v Rutherford [2016] WASC 117 Ma Ching Kwan v John Fairfax Publications Pty Ltd (New South Wales Court of Appeal, 30 July 1998, unreported) Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty To Animals New South Wales v Mal Davies [2011] NSWSC 1445 Sergi v Australian Broadcasting Commission [1983] 2 NSWLR 669 Sungravure Pty Ltd v Middle East Airlines Airliban SAL (1975) 134 CLR 1 The Mekong Club v 2KY Broadcasters Pty Ltd (Supreme Court of New South Wales, 30 April 1996, unreported) University of Salford v Duke [2013] EWHC 196 Vacik Distributors v ABC [2000] NSWSC 732 Viney v TCN Channel Nine Pty Ltd [2006] NSWSC 1273 Texts Cited: Brown, Law of Defamation: Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, United States 2nd. Ed. (Carswell, 2017) Poynder, "Literary Extracts", 1844, vol 1 Category: Procedural and other rulings Parties: Plaintiff: Australian Chinese Community Association of New South Wales Ltd First Defendant: Anthony Pun Second Defendant: Maggie Wu Third Defendant: Daphne Lowe Fourth Defendant: Peter Yau Kwok Wong Fifth Defendant: Maria Chan Sixth Defendant: Phil Chau Seventh Defendant: Man Yee Leanfore Eighth Defendant: Min Xian Huang Representation: Counsel: Plaintiff: Mr M Richardson First, Second, Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Defendants: Mr Y S Chen Third, Fourth and Seventh Defendants: Ms L Evans