John Fairfax Publications Pty Ltd v Rivkin

The High Court of Australia heard an appeal from the New South Wales Court of Appeal concerning a defamation action brought by Mr Rene Rivkin against John Fairfax Publications Pty Ltd. Mr Rivkin alleged that three publications by the appellant conveyed defamatory imputations about him. The appellant did not dispute publication or that some readers of one publication had also read another, which was relevant to Mr Rivkin's claim of a true innuendo.

The central legal issues before the High Court were whether the jury's findings, which determined that the publications did not convey any of the imputations pleaded by Mr Rivkin, were unreasonable to the extent that no reasonable jury, properly instructed, could have reached such conclusions. Additionally, the Court considered the scope of a new trial when only some of a jury's findings on particular imputations might be deemed unreasonable, and whether the trial judge erred in refusing the plaintiff leave to address the jury in reply.

The High Court found that the jury's refusal to find that the articles conveyed the pleaded imputations was a reasonable conclusion. The Court of Appeal had erred in holding that no reasonable jury could have made such findings, particularly given the brevity of the jury's deliberation and their universally unfavourable answers to the alleged imputations. The High Court allowed the appeal, setting aside the orders of the Court of Appeal and ordering that the appeal to that court be dismissed with costs.