Stanton v Fell

[2014] NSWCA 44

Court of Appeal

Supreme Court

New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation:

Stanton v Fell [2014] NSWCA 44

Hearing dates:

7 March 2014

Decision date:

07 March 2014

Before:

Macfarlan JA at [1];
Ward JA at [11]

Decision:

The application for leave to appeal is dismissed with costs.

[Note: The Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 provide (Rule 36.11) that unless the Court otherwise orders, a judgment or order is taken to be entered when it is recorded in the Court's computerised court record system. Setting aside and variation of judgments or orders is dealt with by Rules 36.15, 36.16, 36.17 and 36.18. Parties should in particular note the time limit of fourteen days in Rule 36.16.]

Catchwords:

PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE - leave to appeal - less than $100,000 at issue - not sufficient to show arguability of appeal - leave refused

Legislation Cited:

Defamation Act 2005 (NSW), ss 25, 30, 33
Supreme Court Act 1970 (NSW), s 101

Cases Cited:

Be Financial Pty Ltd v Das [2012] NSWCA 164
Carolan v AMF Bowling Pty Ltd [1995] NSWCA 69
Jaycar Pty Ltd v Lombardo [2011] NSWCA 284
Kassem v Colonial Mutual [2001] NSWCA 38

Category:

Procedural and other rulings

Parties:

Arthur Peter Stanton (Applicant)
Gary Fell (Respondent)

Representation:

Counsel:
K P Smark SC (Applicant)
P J Hayes (Respondent)
Solicitors:
Access Law Group (Applicant)
Russell Kennedy Lawyers (Respondent)

File Number(s):

CA 2013/256516

 Decision under appeal 

Jurisdiction:

9111

Citation:

[2013] NSWSC 1001

Date of Decision:

2013-07-29 00:00:00

Before:

Simpson J

File Number(s):

SC 2012/288471

Judgment

1. MACFARLAN JA: This is an application for leave to appeal against a decision of Simpson J directing judgment for the defendant in proceedings for damages for defamation brought by Dr Arthur Stanton ([2013] NSWSC 1001).

1. At the relevant times, Dr Stanton was a specialist vascular surgeon holding an appointment as a Visiting Medical Officer ("VMO") in the Vascular Surgery Unit of the Wollongong Hospital. The two other VMOs in that unit were Dr David Huber and Dr Laurencia Villalba. On 30 June 2011, Mr Nick Boyne, Deputy Chair of the Board of Vascular Surgery (which operates under the auspices of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons) wrote to Dr Huber informing him that the Board had decided not to continue Wollongong Hospital's accreditation as a training post for vascular surgery due to "political issues" within the Vascular Surgery Unit. Dr Stanton claims that he was defamed in an email sent on 19 September 2011 to Dr Huber by Mr Gary Fell, who was the Chair of the Board. The email was in the following terms:

"Dear David,

Re: Hospital Accreditation, Wollongong Hospital

Further to my correspondence date 28 June 2011 stating that Wollongong Hospital will not be accredited for next year. Upon request from your unit, the Board has reconsidered this decision.

Although the Board does feel there are some areas of the unit which are in conflict, we do believe that there have been moves to rectify these issues.

We have been assured by you…