The appellant applied for leave to appeal against a decision of a District Court judge convicting the appellant for contempt of court.
The respondent manufactures caravans and obtained an interlocutory injunction prohibiting the appellant from publishing her views on their caravans on a Facebook page she established. The respondent sued the appellant for injurious falsehood and was awarded damages. At the time of judgment, orders were made prohibiting the appellant publishing various statements about the respondent’s caravans and business in the future. On the weekend after the judgment was handed down, the appellant published statements about the respondent’s caravans and business. The respondent filed an application for the appellant to be punished for contempt of court which the District Court found was established.
The appellant’s grounds for appeal were that the order made was too ambiguous to found a contempt application and that the judgment of which she was in contempt of had not been pronounced in Court as required by the District Court of Queensland Act 1967 (Qld). The appeal was dismissed with costs.
Sarah Spottiswood (with M Martin KC) appeared for the respondent, instructed by Mills Oakley.
The judgment is published here.
