Coles Myer Ltd v Webster; Coles Myer Ltd v Thompson

Coles Myer Ltd appealed to the New South Wales Court of Appeal against findings made by the trial judge in favour of the respondents, Mr Webster and Mr Thompson. The dispute concerned allegations of false imprisonment and defamation arising from an incident where Coles Myer provided information to police that led to the respondents' detention. The trial judge had found in favour of the respondents on both causes of action.

The Court of Appeal was required to determine whether Coles Myer had caused or procured the lawful detention of the respondents by the police, despite the police acting lawfully in their actions. Furthermore, the court had to consider whether Coles Myer was liable for defamation, specifically whether the defence of qualified privilege was available to them and, if so, whether the imputations published were relevant to the privileged occasion, or if malice vitiated the privilege.

The Court of Appeal upheld the trial judge's findings. Regarding the false imprisonment claim, the court reasoned that Coles Myer's provision of false information to the police, which led to the respondents' detention, constituted causing or procuring the detention, even though the police themselves acted lawfully. The court found that Coles Myer's actions were the effective cause of the imprisonment. On the defamation claim, the court held that the defence of qualified privilege was not available because the imputations published were not relevant to the privileged occasion. The court concluded that a fabricated story could not be considered relevant to a privileged occasion, and therefore, the defence failed.

Consequently, both appeals were dismissed with costs.