Clarke v Nursing and Midwifery Council of New South Wales (No. 2) [2019] NSWDC 531

District Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Clarke v Nursing and Midwifery Council of New South Wales (No. 2) [2019] NSWDC 531 Hearing dates: 15 August 2019 Date of orders: 15 August 2019 Decision date: 15 August 2019 Jurisdiction: Civil Before: Gibson DCJ Decision: (1) On the application of the defendant and with the consent of the plaintiff, the filed pleading headed "The plaintiff's reply" filed on 18 July 2019 is struck out. It is agreed that it is not a "Reply" for the purposes of this litigation and the document to be relied upon is the document headed "Plaintiff's written submissions" filed on 8 August 2019. (2) The plaintiff's Reply dated 8 August 2019 is struck out with leave to amend by 26 September 2019, such order to be self-executing in nature. (3) The plaintiff is to pay the defendant's costs of the application to strike out the Reply. (4) A restriction against inspection or further publication of the material set out on pages 6, 26, 22, 31, 66 and 73 and upon any access to the affidavit of Ms Clarke without prior permission of the court. (5) Matter stood over to the Defamation List on Thursday 17 October 2019. Catchwords: TORT – defamation – application to strike out Reply – litigant in person files document in excess of 100 pages which does not address the defences pleaded – Reply previously struck out on two occasions – leave to replead granted in the form of a self-executing order Legislation Cited: Civil Procedure Act 2005 (NSW), ss 56 - 62 Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (NSW), s 237 Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW), rr 14.4, 14.27 and 14.31 Cases Cited: Drinkwater v Barwon Health Services & Butler (Supreme Court of New South Wales, Levine J, 27 June 1996) Gross v Weston [2007] 69 NSWLR 279 Naidoo v State of Queensland [2017] QDC 63 Nyoni v Pharmacy Board of Australia (No 6) [2018] FCA 526 Category: Procedural and other rulings Parties: Plaintiff: Sharmain Daisy Clarke Defendant: Nursing and Midwifery Council of New South Wales Representation: Counsel: Plaintiff: In person Defendant: Mr D Sibtain