Georges v G Georges; Georges v B Georges

District Court

New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation:

Georges v G Georges; Georges v B Georges [2023] NSWDC 245

Hearing dates:

6 July 2023

Date of orders:

7 July 2023

Decision date:

07 July 2023

Jurisdiction:

Civil

Before:

Abadee DCJ

Decision:

See paragraph 43

Catchwords:

CIVIL PROCEDURE – defamation – case-management directions – grave allegations, including sexual assaults, in defences of justification and contextual truth – whether appropriate to order service of witness outlines before witnesses give evidence – whether appropriate to order parties to disclose names of witnesses to be called prior to them giving evidence

Legislation Cited:

Civil Procedure Act 2005 (NSW) ss 57, 58

Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW) r 31.1

Cases Cited:

Charan v Nationwide News Pty Ltd [2019] VSCA 8

Georges v Georges [2022] NSWDC 558

Gough v Squillacioti [2021] NSWDC 229

Haklane v John Fairfax Publications Pty Ltd [2002] NSWSC 341

Henry v Hill [2000] NSWSC 850

Kingsfield Holdings Pty Ltd v Rutherford [2016] WASC 117

Martrat Pty Ltd t/as Huxley Hill & Associates v Murphy [2020] NSWDC 1

Roberts-Smith v Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd (No. 12) [2021] FCA 465

Roberts-Smith v Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd (No.41) [2023] FCA 555

V’landys v Australian Broadcasting Corporation [2020] FCA 1264

Texts Cited:

Nil

Category:

Procedural rulings

Parties:

Farah Georges (plaintiff)
George Georges (defendant)
Bassam Georges (defendant)

Representation:

Counsel:
Mr D Sibtain SC with Mr T Senior for the plaintiff
Mr K Smark SC for the defendants

Solicitors:
Banki Haddock Fiora for the plaintiff
Blackbay Lawyers for the defendants

File Number(s):

2022/00191186
2022/00203513

Publication restriction:

Nil

REAONS FOR JUDGMENT

Introduction

1. These two matters came before me whilst I sat as the Defamation List Judge on 6 July 2023. They have previously come before me several times before in relation to interlocutory disputes.

2. The background to the proceedings is sufficiently referred to in an earlier judgment I delivered in Georges v Georges [2022] NSWDC 558. These reasons will assume the reader’s familiarity with that background.

3. When the matters came before me yesterday, it was indicated that the parties had been progressing steadily through the pre-hearing steps of discovery and interrogatories, although there is an issue about the adequacy of some answers to interrogatories given by the plaintiff. That dispute will be argued on 20 July 2023 when the matters are next before the Court.

4. The parties, both represented by well-experienced Senior Counsel, urge that on the next occasion, they are given the opportunity to approach the List Judge to take a hearing date. They have slightly different estimates of the length of the hearing, but that dispute is not material: both agree that the hearings would not likely be completed within a week. The parties have agreed on some pre-hearing directions.

5. The argument that occurred on 6 July 2023 centred upon the plaintiff’s proposal in proposed orders 1-3 of the short minutes of order handed up to the Court. This was in the following terms:

“1 By 31 August 2023, the parties are to…