Thieving vet ordered to pay $660,000 after losing puppy defamation claim

Two women who unsuccessfully sued a dog owner and a pet detective for linking them to the disappearance of a puppy have been ordered to pay $660,000 in legal costs in a case that would have netted no more than $15,000 if they had won.

Judge Judith Gibson determined that the defendants were entitled to costs on an indemnity basis, which covers about 80 to 90 per cent of a winning party’s legal bill, after veterinarian Ainslee Munro and agronomist Lauren Marchant failed at the first hurdle in their defamation claim – namely, to identify what they were suing over or establish that anyone had read it.

Agronomist Lauren Marchant (left) and veterinarian Ainslee Munro (centre) outside the NSW District Court in October.Credit: Janie Barrett

But they would have failed anyway, the judge found, because they did steal the dog.

“It’s a lay-down misère,” Gibson told the plaintiffs’ legal representative at a costs hearing in the NSW District Court last month.

“There are so many grounds and [the defendants] only need to succeed on one of them and that would entitle them, really, to the costs of the whole proceedings on an indemnity basis.”

Munro and Marchant launched defamation proceedings after CCTV images of them walking down the street with a small black dog on June 9, 2020, were posted on Facebook.

The images were posted by Shannan Wheeler, whose five-month-old cavalier King Charles spaniel had disappeared from the front yard of her home in the southern NSW town of Young that day, and pet detective Anne-Marie Curry, whom Wheeler had retained to track him down.

Marchant and Munro claimed that the posts and comments they attracted painted them as criminals, dog thieves, liars and persons who would cause mental anguish to children, among other meanings.

Gibson dismissed the claim in February, finding that the evidence supported the imputation that Munro and Marchant stole Teddy, a non-desexed male in a sought-after breed.

“The intention to deprive the true owner was more or less instantaneous with their recognition of the value of Teddy,” Gibson found.

Shannan Wheeler (right) was sued for defamation after her son’s puppy was stolen.Credit: Dean Sewell

At the costs hearing, Curry and Wheeler argued they were entitled to indemnity costs on grounds including that the case brought against them was hopeless from the start, and they had made reasonable attempts to settle.

Gibson noted with irony that Wheeler had made “two interesting offers” to settle, including an apparent proposal to testify against co-defendant Curry.

“One of them involved offering a dog, but the other one that was, I thought, really clever, was she said ‘well, I’m making an offer on my behalf, but, if you accept it, I will give evidence as you direct for the purpose of the court case’.”

She ordered the plaintiffs to pay $629,000 to Curry and $30,000 to Wheeler, whose legal costs were lower because she was self-represented during the hearing.

However, the costs order was stayed subject to any appeal, which Munro and Marchant actuated by filing a new suit in the NSW Court of Appeal on Tuesday.

Darrin Edwards claims to be the only person in Queensland who is allowed to practise law under the title “solicitors managing clerk”.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

The pair is represented by Darrin Edwards, a former debt collector and witness protection agent who works for the boutique firm Australian Property Lawyers, which is based in the small town of Toogoolawah in south-east Queensland.

He said it would be inappropriate to comment while an appeal was afoot.

Edwards does not have a legal degree, but practises under the arcane Queensland title of “solicitors managing clerk”, which requires the supervision of a registered solicitor and is being phased out.

But Edwards has had a history of bad luck with his supervising solicitors.

The now-defunct Gold Coast firm Baker Johnson Lawyers, where Edwards rose to become head of litigation, was sued for fraud, deceit and negligent representation in the early 2000s, and several of its partners were struck off for professional misconduct and overcharging.

Not Edwards. He took legal action against a couple who complained to the Queensland Law Society in 2002 that he had falsely held himself out to be a solicitor, denying that he had misrepresented his qualifications, and seeking $50,000 for injury to his reputation.

The case was settled out of court.

In 2017, his fellow director at Australian Property Lawyers, Cameron McKenzie, was charged with extortion for helping the corrupt Ipswich then mayor Paul Pisasale to shake down an escort’s ex-boyfriend.

One of Pisasale’s political opponents, Gary Duffy, claimed in a submission to a government review of defamation law that McKenzie also frequently weaponised defamation law by sending concern notices to anyone who opposed Pisasale in local government elections.

No such charges were levelled against Edwards.

Edwards told this masthead that McKenzie’s behaviour caused him to be forced out of the firm.

Munro and Marchant retained Edwards days after their CCTV images were posted on Facebook, as Curry and Wheeler appealed for information that might lead to Teddy’s discovery.

Edwards sent Curry a concerns notice demanding $100,000, an apology to be published in the newspaper and the shutdown of her Facebook page, on behalf of Munro and Marchant.

The CCTV image posted to Facebook showing two women walking with a small black dog.

Curry and Wheeler removed the posts but did not accede to the demands. One year later, Marchant and Munro filed defamation proceedings, seeking $250,000 in damages.

In dismissing the claim, Gibson found that if the defendants had not proved Munro and Marchant stole Teddy, she would have ordered damages of $10,000 to Munro and $15,000 to Marchant.

But the other meanings were worth as little as $1000 in reputational damage.

Solicitor Nathan Buck, from law firm Kennedys, who represented Curry before she ran out of money, said the figures in the case spoke for themselves: the parties spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal costs for as little as $1000 in damages.

Anne-Marie Curry is a pet detective based in Sydney.Credit: Janie Barrett

“In the Lehrmann decision, Justice Lee compared making defamation claims with returning to a lion’s den, while Justice Gibson in this decision said it’s like trying to catch a tiger by the tail,” Buck said.

“But the big cats are usually the media, who buy ink by the barrel. Anne-Marie did not have the same resources or reach, but dealt with the plaintiffs’ folly just as ferociously.”

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