12 June 2014

Dank

In Dank v Whittaker (No 4) [2014] NSWSC 732 the Supreme Court of New South Wales has stated that the $10 million defamation actions filed by sports scientist Stephen Dank against various media outlets are an abuse of process for non-compliance with the statutory leave requirements and a cap on the award of damages. The Court held that Mr Dank deliberately excluded a corporate media outlet in his defamation suit to defeat the application of the statutory requirements. The Court concluded that it was appropriate to consolidate all defamation suits into three sets and that such a consolidation would not expose Mr Dank to any relevant prejudice.