Category / Damages / Defamatory meaning / Malice / News / Qualified privilege / Reciprocal duty-interest / Trial
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Philanthropist Wins Round One: Chau v Fairfax Media Publications PL [2019] FCA 185
Dr Chau Chak Wing is a wealthy Chinese-born Australian citizen. He has extensive business interests in China and is a very generous philanthropist. He has donated enormous sums of money to a…
April 15, 2019 -
Horse trainer’s claims scratched: Cummings v Fairfax [2018] NSWCA 325
Anthony Cummings and his company, Anthony Cummings Thoroughbreds Pty Ltd, train horses. They sued Fairfax Digital, The Age, Fairfax Media and a journalist, Kate Leahy, in respect of 3 articles published online…
February 14, 2019 -
Chris Gayle raises bat with triple-century damages [2018] NSWSC 1838
Chris Gayle, a West Indian cricketer and international T20 star, has hit more centuries than anyone in the game’s shortest format, but rarely has he had a better result than in his…
December 4, 2018 -
Market collapses for share trader’s defamation claims: Jones & Australian Shareholder Centre PL v Aussie Networks PL & Eiby [2018] QSC 219
The first defendant owned and ran an internet forum, Aussie Stock Forums, used to discuss topics related to the stock market and investments. The second defendant was its sole director and shareholder.…
November 12, 2018 -
Guilty of $3.75 million radio defamation? … Mr Jones I presume: Wagner v Harbour Radio PL & Ors [2018] QSC 201
Denis, John, Neill and Joe Wagner are brothers from Toowoomba and the owners of a highly successful family business. Their father, Henry had conducted a concrete quarry, stone masonry and earthmoving business.…
October 10, 2018 -
Lying defamation defendant shot down by Sporting Shooters – $887,027.66 in damages: Moroney v Zegers [2018] VSC 448
For a short time in 2012, Karel Zegers was the Acting President of the Victorian branch of the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (SSAAV). His position on the Board was up for…
August 20, 2018 -
Barrister’s internet defamation: He fought the law and the law won: Dods v McDonald [2016] VSC 201
During the evening of 11 December 2008, Tyler Cassidy, a 15 year old boy had stolen two large knives from Kmart at Northcote Plaza Shopping Centre, near All Nations Park. He moved…
May 10, 2016 -
Artists’ appeal upheld, record verdict set aside and re-trial ordered: Vakras v Cripps [2015] VSCA 193
In 2014, a gallery owner, Raymond Cripps was awarded a record $420,000 defamation verdict in the Victorian Supreme Court. The verdict was made by His Honour Justice Kyrou against two surrealist artists,…
August 3, 2015 -
Hockey hoists Fairfax on its own placard: Hockey v Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd [2015] FCA 652
On 5 May 2014, Fairfax, through the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and the Canberra Times, ran a series of articles about a Liberal Party fundraising entity called the North Sydney Forum.…
July 14, 2015 -
Mildura Water Corporation Appeal hosed down: Lower Murray Urban and Rural Water Corporation v Di Masi & Ors [2014] VSCA 104
In 2012, a jury in the Supreme Court of Victoria sat in Mildura, a small orange-picking town on the border of NSW, for 22 days (there were a further four days of…
January 21, 2015