Defamation - Defence of fair and accurate report - Meaning to be determined before considering fairness of report - Whether newspaper report of meeting of Royal Commission fair and accurate - Whether letter or statement by way of contradiction or explanation is reasonable which inaccurately controverts the fairness or accuracy of report - Whether assessment of reasonableness of letter or statement by way of contradiction confined to consideration of facts known at time of writing.
Defamation - Practice - Pleadings - Whether plaintiff should plead all distinct meanings to be relied on - Whether the defendant can plead different meanings and justify them - Whether the plaintiff should be confined to meanings pleaded - Relevance of considerations of delay, disadvantage, prejudice and embarrassment of fair trial of action - Reliance by plaintiff on different meanings pleaded by defendant - Reliance by plaintiff on meanings comprehended in or less injurious than meanings actually pleaded - Reliance by parties on variants of meanings pleaded.
Defamation - Common law privilege - Whether privilege extends to publication of a fair report of the proceedings of a royal commission.
Damages - Defamation - Applicability to report that is not fair or accurate of approach of subtracting effect of non-actionable parts of defamatory article from defamatory parts in calculating damages - Requirement of special damage in law of slander - Evidence of general loss of business as proof of special damage - Lost earning capacity as special damage in defamation law - Recovery for lost earning capacity productive of actual loss.
Civil Procedure - Pleadings - Defence to respond to Statement of Claim - Embarrassment arising from introduction of a false issue.
Words and Phrases: "fair and accurate report", "meeting of any royal commission", "reasonable letter or statement by way of contradiction or explanation".
Wrongs Act 1936 (SA), s 7(1).
Supreme Court Rules (SA), r 46.19(1).