Mohareb v Harbour Radio Pty Ltd; Mohareb v Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd [2018] NSWSC 1992

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Mohareb v Harbour Radio Pty Ltd; Mohareb v Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd [2018] NSWSC 1992 Hearing dates: 24 November 2017 Date of orders: 20 December 2018 Decision date: 20 December 2018 Jurisdiction: Common Law Before: McCallum J Decision: (1) The plaintiff's application to have the defences struck out is dismissed; (2) The defendants have leave to administer interrogatories to the plaintiff in the form of Annexure A of the affidavit of Timothy Senior affirmed on 23 November 2017; (3) Direct the plaintiff to answer those interrogatories within 6 weeks; (4) Direct the plaintiff to verify his discovery within 6 weeks; (5) The plaintiff's motion to set aside the subpoena issued by Fairfax Media Publications to the New South Wales Police Force is dismissed; (6) The plaintiff's application for leave to amend imputations 9(ix) and 11(viii) in the Fairfax Media proceedings (2017/35614) is refused; (7) Stand the proceedings over to 22 February 2019. Catchwords: CIVIL PROCEDURE – pleadings – defence of truth in action for defamation – defence alleging plaintiff has frequently launched legal actions without reasonable grounds or for improper use – where defendant previously brought unsuccessful application against plaintiff under Vexatious Proceedings Act – whether defendant estopped from pleading defence – whether defence amounts to an abuse of process – whether defence raises the same issue as was determined in the Vexatious Proceedings Act application

CIVIL PROCEDURE – interrogatories – where self-represented litigant provided lengthy argumentative responses to defence in reply – utility of interrogatories in distilling issues and reducing court time