The stupidest defamation case ever?

Shayne Currie reports:

One of the country’s more colourful legal cases has been revealed in the High Court, with media firm NZME trying to strike out a Waiheke Island woman’s claim that Hauraki radio host Jeremy Wells defamed her and breached her privacy as he impersonated Mike Hosking 12 years ago.

So this was Jeremy Wells taking the Mickey out of Mike Hosking.

This week, the High Court heard that on July 30, 2014, Wells focused his Like Mike commentary on a stoush that was unfolding on Waiheke Island between TV personality and former sports star Marc Ellis and a neighbour over Ellis’ construction of a driveway.

The Like Mike piece was quoted at various stages during Monday’s proceedings, including the opening lines: “If there’s one thing that annoys me more than even Green voters it’s silly do-gooding neighbourly nosy parkers, in particular the ones that stop you doing things on your own property.

“Marc Ellis knows all about them – he’s trying to build a driveway to his practical, unpretentious five-bedroom family bach on Waiheke and some neighbour is getting in the way. The council has granted consent so what’s the problem?

“My guess is that the complainant is either a lesbian or bi-curious, both of which spell danger. Most people who block progress on Waiheke Island are lesbians. You see, lesbians are often lesbian and by their very nature they complain. They’re often jealous, they own dogs …”

Wells, impersonating Hosking, also said: “Occasionally you’ll get a good lesbian, one that plays sports. But in my experience, which is zero when it comes to lesbians because I’ve never met one, they’re potentially terrible neighbours.”

This sounded hilarious. He is taking the Mickey out of Hosking and Marc Ellis. The part about occasionally you get a good lesbian that plays sports (remember he is saying this is what Hosking thinks or would say) is especially funny.

The Waiheke Island resident – named in news reports in 2014 as a neighbour in dispute with Ellis – took exception when she discovered a transcript of the Like Mike item on an independent and anonymous blog site more than nine years later, in October 2023.

So nine years later she discovered the transcript, and despite it not even naming her, she decided to sue for defamation!

NZME maintains that neither Wells nor anyone else at the company knew the woman’s sexuality when the segment aired, a point central to its argument that the privacy claim cannot succeed.

What this infers is that the complaining neighbour was in fact a lesbian! And she is so thin skinned she is trying to sue a decade later, over a satirical peace that wasn’t even aimed at her. Sad.