Mohareb v Fairfax Media Publications Pty Limited [2017] NSWSC 288

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Mohareb v Fairfax Media Publications Pty Limited [2017] NSWSC 288 Hearing dates: 17 March 2017 Decision date: 17 March 2017 Jurisdiction: Common Law Before: McCallum J Decision: Imputations 9(ii), (iii), (vii) and 9(ix)(first alternative) struck out; imputations (x) and (xi) to be amended so as to delete the words "because the Police decided not to pursue an investigation"; parties to bring in short minutes of order including directions as to the future conduct of the proceedings; leave granted to the plaintiff to re-plead imputation 9(vii) in the terms "That the plaintiff is an evil man"; order the plaintiff to pay the first and second defendants' costs of the argument Catchwords: DEFAMATION – imputations – requirement of precision – pleading alleging that the matter complained of attributes the plaintiff with being an evil man who is "probably related to Satan" – whether capable of being understood literally – whether ordinary reasonable reader could take Satan to be "in fact" the progenitor of all evil – requirement that an imputation be capable of being literally true Legislation Cited: Defamation Act 2005 (NSW), s 23 Vexatious Proceedings Act 2008 (NSW) Cases Cited: The Attorney General for the State of New South Wales v Mohareb [2016] NSWSC 1823 Category: Procedural and other rulings Parties: Nader Mohareb (plaintiff) Fairfax Media Productions Pty Limited (first plaintiff) Louise Hall (second defendant) Gabrielle Upton, the Attorney General for New South Wales (third defendant) Representation: Counsel: R Rasmussen (plaintiff) M Richardson (first and second defendants) S Chrysanthou (third defendant)