Raghubir v Nicolopoulos

[2021] FCA 1073

FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

Raghubir v Nicolopoulos [2021] FCA 1073

File number(s):

NSD 801 of 2021

Judgment of:

RARES J

Date of judgment:

3 September 2021

Catchwords:

HIGH COURT AND FEDERAL COURT – federal jurisdiction – whether claim under Defamation Act 2005 (NSW) based on publication to persons only within State of allegedly defamatory letters arising out of backyard dispute within federal jurisdiction – whether any matter attracting judicial power of the Commonwealth – Held: proceeding dismissed for want of jurisdiction

Legislation:

Federal Court of Australia Act1976 (Cth) s 19(1)

Judiciary Act 1903 (Cth) s 39B(1A)

Jurisdiction of Courts (Cross-Vesting) Act 1987 (Cth) s 9(3)

Defamation Act 2005 (NSW) s 35(1)

Limitation Act 1969 (NSW) ss 14B, 56A

Cases cited:

Crosby v Kelly (2012) 203 FCR 451

Re Wakim;  Ex parte McNally (1999) 198 CLR 511

Division:

General Division

Registry:

New South Wales

National Practice Area:

Other Federal Jurisdiction

Number of paragraphs:

16

Date of hearing:

3 September 2021

Solicitor for the Applicants:

The Applicants appeared in person

Solicitor for the Respondents:

Condon Legal

ORDERS

NSD 801 of 2021

BETWEEN:

RENUKA RAGHUBIR

First Applicant

VIRENDRA SINGH

Second Applicant

AND:

CHRISTINE NICOLOPOULOS

First Respondent

STRATA MANAGER SP7526

Second Respondent

STRATA TREASURER SP7526 (and others named in the Schedule)

Third Respondent

ORDER MADE BY:	RARES J
DATE OF ORDER:	3 SEPTEMBER 2021

THE COURT ORDERS THAT:

1.The proceeding be dismissed for want of jurisdiction.

2.The applicants pay the respondents’ costs.

Note:   Entry of orders is dealt with in Rule 39.32 of the Federal Court Rules 2011.

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT
(REVISED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT)

RARES J:

1. On 6 August 2021, the applicants,  Renuka Raghubir and Virendra Singh, filed an originating application in this Court claiming $5,504,100 damages for defamation under the Defamation Act 2005 (NSW) in respect of what, conveniently, they said in their affidavit sworn on 6 August 2021 was a dispute as follows:

   While we, the Plaintiffs were living there, we never talked to the defendants. We did not entertain her. The defendants started to instigate problems, by letting her dog bark at us every time we pass by from the front of the property, we go in the backyard to wash clothes, hang clothes, clean the backyard, do gardening in the backyard. The defendants will let her dog keep barking at us. Even when the defendants sense that we are in our kitchen, she will let her dog bark at us.

2. The applicants claim that the first respondent, their former next-door neighbour, Christine Nicolopoulos, who was the chairperson and secretary of the strata corporation in which both the applicants and the first respondent then lived.  They claimed that, commencing on 2 July 2019, the first respondent wrote a series of allegedly defamatory letters to the other owners, and their real estate agents, of units in the block in Bexley, a suburb of Sydney.  The applicants rely on these letters to claim that the first respondent alleged to the local council, as well as to their then