Defamation claim by waste firm founder rejected again

• Published date: 04 December 2023
• Publication title: New Zealand Herald, The (Auckland, New Zealand)

Grahame Christian, founder and former managing director of Smart Environmental, brought defamation proceedings against Murray Bain, a Smart competitor and the key source for two articles published by the New Zealand Herald in 2019. The front-page news article and longer feature article focused on Smart’s provision of services to the Thames Coromandel District Council (TCDC)

In November 2019 Christian, Herald publisher NZME and freelance write Mike Valintine reached a confidential, satisfactory settlement.

Christian did not settle with Bain, who then applied to the High Court to strike out the claim against him.

In a judgment released last December, Judge Tracey Walker concluded the articles contained imputations defamatory of Christian and that Bain was partly responsible for them as a joint tortfeasor.

But because NZME and Valintine had made reasonable efforts to verify the allegations and had offered Smart an opportunity to comment on them, Bain succeeded in making out the defence of responsible communication on a matter of public interest.

Judge Walker later ordered Christian to pay a substantial sum in...