Pedro Alfaro trading as Palfaro Cleaning Services ABN: 57 267 431 409 v Taylor [2018] NSWDC 134

District Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Pedro Alfaro trading as Palfaro Cleaning Services ABN: 57 267 431 409 v Taylor [2018] NSWDC 134 Hearing dates: 24 May 2018 Date of orders: 29 May 2018 Decision date: 29 May 2018 Jurisdiction: Civil Before: Gibson DCJ Decision: (1) Plaintiff's Amended Statement of Claim dismissed. (2) Plaintiff pay defendants' costs. Catchwords: TORT – defamation – plaintiff commences proceedings for defamation against the Guardian, its editor and Facebook Australia Pty Ltd for an online post on the Guardian Facebook page – eight month delay between publication and action – defendants unable to locate emails forwarding correspondence identified in the statement of claim as complaints made by the plaintiff to the defendants at the time of publication – plaintiff consents to an order to produce this correspondence but fails to provide it – application by defendants for dismissal of the claim – alternative application by third defendant for summary dismissal of the claim against Facebook Australia Pty Ltd on the principles set out in Young v Facebook Australia Pty Ltd [2015] FCA 1440 – plaintiff fails to attend court for directions or for the hearing of the application – whether the hearing should proceed in the face of the plaintiff's refusal to attend – whether a party may call for a document referred to in a pleading – relevance of the order being made by consent – relevance of missing correspondence to defence of innocent dissemination – whether the proceedings are an abuse of process – proportionality – whether there was any alternative to summary dismissal – no alternative to summary dismissal due to plaintiff's refusal to participate – defendants' applications granted – alternative claim by Facebook Australia Ltd also established – proceedings dismissed with costs Legislation Cited: Civil Procedure Act 2005 (NSW), ss 56-62 and 144 Defamation Act 2005 (NSW), s 23 Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW), rr 12.7, 13.4, 14.28, 18.7, 21.10 and 29.7 District Court Practice Note 6 (Defamation) Cases Cited: Baffico v YMCA of Great Lakes Inc [2014] NSWCA 61 Batistatos v RTA (NSW) (2006) 226 CLR 256 Bi v Mourad [2010] NSWCA 17 Burns v Sunol [2018] NSWCATAD 10 Burns v Sunol [2018] NSWCATAD 78 Burns v Sunol [2018] NSWCATAD 109 Clark v New South Wales (2006) 66 NSWLR 640 Coren v Master Builders Association of New South Wales Pty Ltd [2014] NSWCA 244 Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd v Bateman (2015) 321 ALR 726 Favell v Queensland Newspapers Pty Ltd (2005) 79 ALJR 1716 Halpin v Lumley General Insurance Inc (2009) 261 ALR 741 Jenman v McIntyre [2013] NSWSC 1100 Kae v Wak [2010] QCA 327 Mango Boulevard Pty Ltd v Spencer [2008] QCA 274 Michail v Mount Druitt and Area Community Legal Centre Inc [2015] NSWCA 396 Michail v Mount Druitt & Area Community Legal Centre (No. 2) [2015] NSWDC 214 Mohareb v Kelso [2017] NSWCA 98 Mohammed v Unicomb [2017] NSWCA 65 Moody Kiddell and Partners Pty Ltd v Arkell [2013] FCA 1066 Palavi v Queensland Newspapers Pty Ltd (2012) 84 NSWLR 523 Rafidi v Commonwealth Bank of Australia Ltd [2017] NSWCA 96 Rogers v Wentworth [1988] NSWCA 129 Satz v ACN 069 808 957 Pty Ltd [2010] NSWSC 365 Slipetz v Trudeau [2013] MBQB 111 Templar v Britton (No 2) [2014] NSWSC 587 Ting Ting Jia v Lee [2018] VSC 164 Toomey v John Fairfax & Sons Ltd (1985) 1 NSWLR 291 Torpey Vander Have Pty Ltd v Mass Constructions Pty Ltd [2002] NSWCA 263 Voller v Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd [2018] NSWSC 608 Wen Yue He v Chinese Newspapers Pty Ltd [2005] NSWSC 253 Young v Facebook Australia Pty Ltd [2015] FCA 1440 Category: Principal judgment Parties: Plaintiff: Pedro Alfaro trading as Palfaro Cleaning Services ABN: 57 267 431 409 First Defendant: Lenore Taylor Second Defendant: Guardian News and Media Limited ABN: 24 547 692 578 trading as Guardian Australia Third Defendant: Facebook Australia Pty Ltd Representation: Plaintiff: No appearance