Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2002 11:58:33 +1100

From: Christopher Archibald

Subject: Interesting New Cases

Mallesons Stephen Jaques
www.mallesons.com

Confidential communication

The High Court of Australia has this morning delivered judgment in Dow Jones v Gutnick, the case of the Melbourne businessman suing for defamation suffered in Victoria as a result of Victorians reading the online version of WSJ.com. The judgment appears here:

http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/high_ct/2002/56.html

The court unanimously dismissed Dow Jones' appeal (although in several different judgments), holding that Victorian law of defamation does not adopt the 'single publication rule', and that the place of the tort is ordinarily where the damage to reputation occurs, which in turn is ordinarily where the person downloads the material (in this case, Victoria). Since the claim was limited to damage suffered in Victoria and the tort alleged occurred in Victoria, the court declined to stay the proceeding on grounds that Victoria was an inappropriate forum.

CMA

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