Palmer urged to stop court case and talk to ex-friend

Resources tycoon Clive Palmer has been urged to abandon his ­litigation and negotiate an end to a defamation lawsuit.

Resources tycoon Clive Palmer has been urged to abandon his ­litigation and negotiate an end to a defamation lawsuit launched by his former accountant and close friend Bill Schoch.

Queensland Supreme Court judge Peter Applegarth yesterday slashed Mr Schoch’s claim from $1.78 million to $711,000, dismissing three of the five times Mr Palmer allegedly defamed his ex-employee because Mr Schoch waited too long to sue.

Warning there were often no real winners in defamation cases, Justice Applegarth suggested a trial could be avoided through mediation.

“I’m not going to force people to go to mediation if it’s just going to delay matters … but I would just encourage the parties to consider alternative dispute resolution,’’ he said.

Separate to this stoush, Mr Palmer is embroiled in several legal cases sparked by the liqui­dation of his Townsville-based Queensland Nickel refinery company, which collapsed under debts of nearly $300m this year.

Mr Schoch alleges Mr Palmer defamed him, undermined his credibility and damaged his reputation five times between April 2014 and last September. All were sparked by a separate lawsuit Mr Schoch slapped on Mr Palmer in 2014, alleging the ­tycoon hired him promising $5m over five years and then sacked him. Mr Schoch lost the case.

Justice Applegarth yesterday struck out all but the two most ­recent alleged defamations, deeming the earlier three to be outside the time limit.

The case now relates to a press conference Mr Palmer gave outside court last September after he’d given evidence about the ­alleged $5m job offer, and an interview on the Nine Network’s Today program. Justice Applegarth said the latter was serious because it alleged “Mr Schoch was dishonest”.

The judge said “no one really wins defamation cases”, and urged both parties to consider ­alternative dispute resolution.

Mr Schoch said: “I’m not going forward with that because Mr Palmer is not an alternative ­dispute resolution person.

“That’s just a time-waster.”