Geoffrey Rush appeal: Daily Telegraph and Nationwide News lose defamation case against actor – live news
Actor to be awarded full $2.9m in damages after judges reject all publisher’s grounds of appeal, including for a retrial, that costs be reduced and that it defamed Rush. Follow the latest updates
The Daily Telegraph also appealed against the original judge’s decision to exclude the evidence of actor Yael Stone – who alleged Rush had harassed her during a different play.
In the original trial, Justice Wigney had rejected the Telegraph’s application to add Stone’s evidence. He ruled that though the evidence was important to the Telegraph’s case, the lateness of the application to add her and the “delay to the completion of the trial” would unfairly disadvantage Rush.
The judge’s own availability was the more significant ... the appellants’ present submission proceeds on a false premise because, whether or not the appellants were granted leave to adduce Ms Stone’s evidence by video link, the length of the adjournment necessitated by the grant of leave to make the amendments would have been the same.
The judge’s reasons show careful attention to all the matters, pro and con ... Having reviewed the material, we consider that the judge’s decision on the amendment application was, in the circumstances, hardly surprising.”
The appeal judges also upheld the trial judge’s ruling that Norvill’s social interactions with Rush contradicted some of her testimony.
The original judgment listed three things: one was that Norvill went to a play with Rush and had dinner with him, one was that Norvill invited Rush to a Christmas party at her parents’ home, and one was that she sent an “affectionate” email to him two days before the last performance of King Lear.
Continue reading...from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2Zxjh0q
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