Vass v Nationwide News Pty Ltd [2018] NSWSC 639

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Vass v Nationwide News Pty Ltd [2018] NSWSC 639 Hearing dates: 19 April 2018 Decision date: 20 April 2018 Jurisdiction: Common Law Before: McCallum J Decision: (1) Declaration that, as at 21 March 2018, the defendant's renewed offer of amends dated 9 May 2017 remained open to be accepted by the plaintiff and that the letter dated 21 March 2018 from the plaintiff to the defendant constituted valid acceptance of that offer; (2) hearing date vacated; (3) defendant ordered to pay the plaintiff's costs of the application determined today Catchwords: DEFAMATION – offer of amends – whether implicitly rejected prior to purported acceptance by intervening offer of compromise by plaintiff – consideration of the proper construction of the offer of amends provisions of the Defamation Act 2005 (NSW) – good sense in construing those provisions so as to reserve to the party making an offer exclusive control to determine the term for which the offer remains open for acceptance Legislation Cited: Defamation Act 2005 (NSW), ss 3, 12(3), 16, 18(1)(c) Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW) Cases Cited: Brambles Holdings Ltd v Bathurst City Council (2001) 53 NSWLR 153; [2001] NSWCA 61 Zoef v Nationwide News Pty Ltd [2016] NSWCA 283 Category: Procedural and other rulings Parties: Damien Vass (plaintiff) Nationwide News Pty Ltd (defendant) Representation: Counsel: T Molomby SC, L Goodchild (plaintiff) D Sibtain, M Lewis (defendant)

Solicitors: Vobis Equity Attorneys (plaintiff) News Corp Australia (defendant) File Number(s): 2016/131838 Publication restriction: None