NSWNSWSC
Ferrier v McRae
[2015] NSWSC 1537
Supreme Court of NSW|2015-10-09|Before: McCallum J
View original sourceAt a glance
Source factsCourt
Supreme Court of NSW
Decision date
2015-10-09
Before
McCallum J
Source
Original judgment source is linked above.
Judgment (2 paragraphs)
[1]
Judgment - Ex Tempore
- HER HONOUR: These are proceedings for injurious falsehood commenced by the plaintiff against Mr Adrian McRae. The present application is the defendant's application to have an amended statement of claim, filed on 17 September 2015, struck out. The plaintiff has had two previous opportunities to bring in an amended pleading. As recorded in my judgment published 18 September 2015, the proceedings came before me on 21 August 2015, when the plaintiff was represented by Mr Potter of counsel: see Ferrier v McRae [2015] NSWSC 1379. Mr Potter said he had only come just into the matter and wished to have an adjournment to pay attention to the form of the pleading.
- On the next occasion, 18 September 2015, Mr Potter had evidently gone out of the matter and the plaintiff was represented by Mr Connell of counsel. Mr Connell also sought an adjournment in order to give some attention to the form of the pleading.
- Each of those barristers is an experienced practitioner in this field. Either would have been more than able to bring the pleading into proper form. However, all that has happened since the commencement of the proceedings is that, as already noted, on 17 September 2015 an amended statement of claim was filed, evidently with all changes being made by the plaintiff personally. The only changes made to that pleading are that the plaintiff appears to have scored out in pen a number of the paragraphs. There are no additional paragraphs; the deletion of the paragraphs scored out has the result that the pleading makes less rather than more sense than it did before.
- Ms Barnett, who appears for the defendant, has articulated in careful terms the difficulties with the existing pleading.
- Three discrete sorts of allegation are made against Mr McRae in the pleadings. The first is a claim for injurious falsehood based on the contention that Mr McRae made remarks to directors of an entity known as Paynes Find Gold Limited as a result of which Mr Ferrier alleges a company of which he was the sole director and shareholder, MJF Mining Services WA Pty Limited, lost a lucrative contract.