Court document reveals the Wagner brothers apology Alan Jones refused to make
A judge has revealed the apology broadcaster Alan Jones refused to make to four Toowoomba brothers to settle a defamation case against him before it went to trial.
A JUDGE has revealed the apology broadcaster Alan Jones refused to make to four Toowoomba brothers to settle a defamation case against him before it went to trial.
Justice Peter Flanagan’s judgment on the costs to be paid to Denis, John, Neill and Joe also reveals the settlement offers they rejected.
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Justice Flanagan on Friday ordered Mr Jones, Harbour Radio and Radio 4BC to pay costs to the Wagners on the higher indemnity level up to the first day of the trial.
Justice Flanagan said the defendants’ conduct had caused the Wagners to incur unnecessary and wasted costs in preparing for the trial.
They were then ordered to pay the Wagners standard costs of the proceedings, and also pay the costs of journalist Nick Cater, who was not found to have defamed the Wagners.
In September, Justice Flanagan awarded the Wagner brothers a record $3,754,984 – $938,746 each, including interest, for being defamed by Mr Jones in radio broadcasts.
Mr Jones had claimed they were responsible for the deaths of 12 people in the 2011 Grantham floods when a bund at their quarry collapsed.
The judge said Mr Jones and the other defendants first made an “unreasonable’’ offer to make amends in 2015 and in 2017 they offered to pay each brother $200,000, plus costs.
Just before the trial commenced in April, there was an offer of $700,000 to each brother, plus standard costs, and judgment for the Wagners.
The Wagners asked for settlement with judgment for them, each of them to receive $675,000, plus standard costs and a published apology by Mr Jones.
The apology — rejected by the defendants — included an acknowledgment by Mr Jones that he had “unfairly and wrongly blamed’’ the Wagners for the Grantham flood event.
It required him to unreservedly accept that all his claims and allegations against the brothers were without foundation and false.
The brothers also wanted Mr Jones to accept a floods inquiry findings that they were “completely innocent of any wrongdoing’’.
Mr Jones also was to unreservedly withdraw any suggestion that the Wagners built Wellcamp Airport in Toowoomba without approvals.
The apology required him to say: “I also wish to record that you are businessmen of honesty and integrity and your family have made, and continue to make, significant contributions to Australia.’’
On May 10, Mr Jones and the two radio defendants offered to settle with a statement of apology by Alan Jones to the Wagner family.
The Wagners rejected it, saying the apology was inadequate, as it failed to include any reference to 11 defamatory imputations the defendants were not seeking to defend.
It also did not contain any expression of regret for the publications or an unqualified acknowledgment of the falsity of the defamations and a withdrawal of them, they said.
Originally published as Court document reveals the Wagner brothers apology Alan Jones refused to make