Eardley v Nine Network Australia Pty Ltd [2017] NSWSC 1374

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Eardley v Nine Network Australia Pty Ltd [2017] NSWSC 1374 Hearing dates: 17 November 2017 Decision date: 17 November 2017 Jurisdiction: Common Law Before: McCallum J Decision: Truth defence in respect of plaintiff's imputations 5(a), (b) and (c) struck out. Plaintiff's objections to the truth defence are otherwise rejected; contextual imputation (iv) is struck out; plaintiff has leave to file a further amended statement of claim appropriating the remaining contextual imputations on the condition to which I have referred; costs of today's argument each party's costs in the cause Catchwords: DEFAMATION – defences – application to strike out truth defences – significance of "liking" a post on Facebook – whether capable of establishing responsibility for post – contextual imputations – whether different in substance from plaintiff's Legislation Cited: Defamation Act 2005 (NSW), ss 25, 26 Cases Cited: Chel v Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd [2015] NSWSC 171 Fairfax Media Publications v Zeccola (2015) 91 NSWLR 341; [2015] NSWCA 329 Hayson v John Fairfax Publications Pty Ltd [2007] NSWCA 376 Hayson v John Fairfax Publications Pty Ltd [2007] NSWSC 763 Jones v TCN Channel Nine Pty Ltd (No 3) [2016] NSWSC 922 MacDonald v Australian Broadcasting Corporation [2014] NSWSC 1472 Category: Procedural and other rulings Parties: Denby-Lea Eardley (plaintiff) Nine Network Australia Pty Ltd (first defendant) Erin Willing (second defendant) Representation: Counsel: R Glasson (plaintiff) M Richardson (defendants)