CIVIL PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE — application to further amend — whether application concerns additional causes of action that are statute-barred
DEFAMATION — concerns notices — whether proposed amended pleading relies upon ‘matters’ not referred to in concerns notice
Quick Take
1A vague 'catch-all' category in a concerns notice that fails to identify a specific publication, publisher, occasion, or the imputations of concern does not satisfy the requirements of s 12A(1)(a) of the Defamation Act 2005 (NSW), and a publisher's failure to request further particulars under s 12A(3) does not cure that deficiency where the notice conceals more than it reveals.
2Publications originally pleaded only as part of the factual matrix supporting a claim for aggravated damages are not, in form or substance, additional 'matters complained of' constituting separate causes of action; a manifestly defamatory but non-actionable publication may support aggravated damages without itself generating a cause of action.
3An order extending the limitation period under s 56A of the Limitation Act 1969 (NSW) in respect of publications pleaded in a statement of claim does not extend to new causes of action not pleaded at the time of the extension, and where the three-year maximum extension period under s 56A(2) has expired for those additional publications, the deficiency cannot be cured.
