GUTNICK V DOW JONES & CO INC [2001] VSC 305
Supreme Court of VIC– 28 August 2001
FACTS
An article headed “Unholy Gains” was published in Barrons Magazine and also placed on the Defendant’s website located in New Jersey USA. Dow Jones operated this as a subscriber site and had 1700 subscribers in Australia.
The claim was that the Defendant published words and pictures, including a photo of Mr. Gutnick along with an imputation that the Plaintiff “was masquerading as a reputable citizen when he was a tax evader who had laundered large amounts of money…”
ISSUES
The Court was required to determine jurisdiction on the basis of where the online article was published and forum non convenience (was Victoria clearly an inappropriate forum).
FINDING
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