Seven West chairman Kerry Stokes and commercial director Bruce McWilliam have been ordered by a court to hand over thousands of emails with Ben Roberts-Smith’s legal team relating to the soldier’s failed defamation action.
Last month Roberts-Smith lost a defamation case against the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, and the Canberra Times. The Victoria cross winner alleged the newspapers had defamed him by saying he committed war crimes, however Justice Anthony Besanko found the newspapers had successfully proved that he had been complicit in the murder of four unarmed civilians whilst serving in the SAS in Afghanistan.
Whilst Roberts-Smith agreed to pay costs on an indemnity basis. The newspapers are now seeking third-party costs against Seven West Media, saying it is an interested party.
The case ran over 110 days, included 41 witnesses and is estimated to have cost more than $25 million in legal fees.
Majority shareholder in Seven West Media, Stokes, funded the case through the public company at the beginning before transferring the liability to his private company Australian Capital Equity.
Seven covered the legal costs of the three witnesses whom needed to give evidence on behalf of Roberts-Smith.
The newspapers have subpoenaed documents sent between Stokes, McWilliam and Seven and Robert-Smith’s lawyers. The newspapers are arguing that Seven should be liable for costs because it had an element of control over the case.
Lawyers for the newspapers claim that as many as 8,600 emails were exchanged between McWilliam and Roberts-Smith’s legal team during the trial.
Neil Young, a lawyer acting for Seven, Australian Capital Equity (ACE), Stokes, and McWilliam has argued that the subpoenas were “far too wide” and that the emails are irrelevant to the case.
“There is no strong presumption … that indicates something more than observation [of the case] was going on,” he said.
Back in July, Roberts-Smith filed an appeal against the findings of judge Justice Robert Besanko, despite his barrister originally claiming he would not be doing so.
The costs hearing is listed for 4 September.
