Sport scientist Stephen Dank has lost an appeal on the dismissal of his defamation claims against the Cronulla rugby league club, its former boss and a journalist.
Dank first took legal action against the NRL club, its chairman Damian Irvine, News Corp Australia journalist Phil Rothfield, the Nine Network and two of its presenters in April last year.
It came following allegations, reported by Mr Rothfield and the Nine Network in March, that Dank was injecting players with "equine substances" or "horse drugs".
The allegations, according to Dank, were conveyed to Mr Rothfield from Mr Irvine.
But Dank's paper work contained several factual errors and was found to be in such a mess that in December Justice Lucy McCallum dismissed several parts of his defamation action.
"The present pleading of the first matter complained of remains in embarrassing form and must be struck out," she wrote in her judgment.
Many of Dank's problems come from the way he filed his original claim and subsequent amended statement of claim.
"The whole of the pleading is infected with the difficulty of (Dank's) inability to attribute precise words to (Mr Irvine) in a single, continuous publication," Justice McCallum wrote in December.
"That inability infects the whole of the pleading and renders it embarrassing."
Justices Julie Ward, Arthur Emmett and Anthony Gleeson agreed.
"The summons for leave to appeal should be dismissed," Justice Ward wrote in her judgment, handed down in the NSW Court of Appeal on Thursday.
"The statement of claim is clearly defective," Justice Emmett wrote.
Justice Gleeson said "no injustice could be said to arise in relation to this ruling".
As well as losing the chance to appeal Justice McCallum's decision, Dank has been ordered to pay the costs of Mr Irvine, Mr Rothfield and the Cronulla club.
Mr Irvine quit his job as chairman of the Cronulla Sharks in March 2013 as the anti-doping investigation swept through the NRL.
It is understood Dank's claims against the Nine Network will proceed.
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