Khalil v Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd [2017] NSWDC 346

District Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Khalil v Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd [2017] NSWDC 346 Hearing dates: 30 November 2017 Date of orders: 07 December 2017 Decision date: 07 December 2017 Jurisdiction: Civil Before: Gibson DCJ Decision: (1) Defendant's application for summary dismissal of the proceedings refused. (2) Grant leave to the plaintiffs to replead imputations 3(a) to 3(f). (3) Amended Statement of Claim to be filed and served in 7 days. (4) Costs reserved with liberty to apply. (5) Liberty to the parties to bring in Short Minutes of Order for a timetable for the proceedings. Catchwords: TORT – defamation – application for summary dismissal of claim on the basis that no defamatory imputations could arise – nature of test for summary dismissal – application refused – challenge to form of imputations – whether "involved" is a "weasel word" – whether challenges to the form and capacity of imputations may be made on such a basis – imputations struck out with leave to replead Legislation Cited: Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW), r 28.2 Cases Cited: Accommodation West Pty Ltd v Aikman [2017] WASC 157 Adeang v Australian Broadcasting Corporation [2016] FCA 1200 Amalgamated Television Services Pty Ltd v Marsden (1998) 43 NSWLR 158 Bik v Mirror Newspapers Ltd [1979] 2 NSWLR 679 Dunsec Pty Ltd v Nationwide News Pty Ltd [2000] NSWCA 155 Goodfellow v Fairfax Media Publications Pty Limited [2017] FCA 1152 Hayson v John Fairfax Publications Pty Ltd [2007] NSWSC 763 Hepburn v TCN Channel Nine [1984] 1 NSWLR 386 Hockey v Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd (2015) 332 ALR 257 Lim v TVW Enterprises Pty Ltd [2002] WASC 214 Ma Ching Kwan v John Fairfax Publications Pty Ltd [1998] NSWSC 321; Court of Appeal, Mason P Meagher and Handley JJA, 30 July 1998 (unreported) Maher v Nationwide News Pty Ltd (No 2) [2013] WASC 254 Murphy v Nationwide News Pty Ltd (No 2) [2017] FCA 781 Pickering v Publishing & Broadcasting Pty Ltd (Supreme Court of NSW, Levine J, 21 June 1996) Trkulja v Google Inc [2017] HCATrans 129 Category: Procedural and other rulings Parties: First Plaintiff: Khalil Khalil Second Plaintiff: Hassan Souied Defendant: Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd Representation: Counsel: Plaintiffs: Mr R Rasmussen Defendant: Mr M Lewis