Corby v Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd

In the New South Wales Court of Appeal, Bathurst CJ, McColl and Gleeson JJA considered appeals by Rosleigh Jill Rose, Michael Corby Jnr, and Mercedes Pearl Esma Corby against Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd. The dispute concerned a book published by the respondents, which purported to tell the "untold story behind Schapelle Corby's ill-fated drug run." The appellants alleged that the book conveyed defamatory imputations concerning them.

The primary legal issues before the Court were whether certain imputations pleaded by the appellants were capable of being defamatory, and whether the respondents' publication of the book constituted a republication of defamatory hearsay, thereby adopting such statements. The Court also had to consider the application of the "bane and antidote" principle at the capacity stage, where the respondents contended that the defamatory effect of certain imputations was neutralised by the overall tenor of the book and specific sections within it. The standard by which a defamatory imputation is determined, including the relevance of prevailing moral standards, was also a key consideration.

The Court applied established principles of defamation law, focusing on the capacity of the words used to convey a defamatory meaning. It considered whether the publisher had adopted the defamatory statements of third parties, and whether any potentially defamatory material was sufficiently counteracted by other parts of the publication to negate its defamatory impact. The Court's reasoning involved an analysis of the ordinary reasonable reader's understanding of the text in its entirety, assessing whether it would tend to lower the appellants in the estimation of right-thinking members of society.

The Court allowed the appeals, granting leave and setting aside certain orders of the court below. The respondents were ordered to pay the appellants' costs in both the court below and on appeal.