Nikolic v Nationwide News Pty Ltd

In the Supreme Court of Victoria, the defendant, Nationwide News Pty Ltd, applied for summary judgment and/or striking out of the plaintiff’s claim in the matter of Nikolic v Nationwide News Pty Ltd. The plaintiff, Mr. Nikolic, sought damages for defamation, alleging that the defendant had made defamatory statements about him in publications it controlled. The defendant contended that the plaintiff’s claim had no real prospect of success, as the statements in question did not concern the plaintiff’s goods or business and were not capable of being defamatory.

The court had to determine whether the plaintiff’s statement of claim disclosed a cause of action for injurious falsehood and whether the alleged defamatory statements were capable of being defamatory. The court considered the case of Lysaght Building Solutions Pty Ltd v Blanalko Pty Ltd, which established that for a claim of injurious falsehood to succeed, the publication must concern the plaintiff's goods or business. The court also examined the requirement that the imputation pleaded must be defamatory, referencing Soultanov v The Age Company Limited & anor, which held that an imputation is not capable of being defamatory if it does not lower the plaintiff in the estimation of right-thinking members of society.

The court concluded that the plaintiff's claim did not disclose a cause of action, as the statements did not pertain to the plaintiff’s goods or business and were not defamatory. Consequently, the court granted the defendant’s application for summary judgment and dismissed the plaintiff’s claim. The court also refused the plaintiff’s application to strike out the defendant's defence, as it was filed within the requisite time and was considered a holding defence pending the outcome of the summary judgment application.