Gan v Zadravic

In the case of Gan v Zadravic, the plaintiff, Mr. Gan, sought damages for defamation based on a Facebook post made by the defendant, Mr. Zadravic. The post in question alleged that Mr. Gan had failed to pay his employees superannuation, an assertion that Mr. Gan claimed was false and defamatory. The matter was brought before the court to determine whether the case should be dismissed or stayed due to the perceived imbalance between the legal costs and court resources required to resolve the claim and the interest at stake.

The primary legal issues before the court involved whether the plaintiff's defamation action was an abuse of process and if the imputations made in the Facebook post were reasonably capable of being conveyed. The defendant argued that the action should be dismissed or stayed as it would require significant legal and court resources to address a matter of relatively minor importance. Additionally, the defendant contested the form and capacity of the imputations, asserting that they were not reasonably capable of being understood or conveyed as alleged.

The court found that the plaintiff's action was not an abuse of process and dismissed the defendant's application for summary dismissal. The imputations made in the Facebook post were deemed reasonably capable of being conveyed, and the challenges to their form were rejected. Consequently, the court ordered that the defendant pay the plaintiff's costs.