Fairfax Media has lost its bid to have a defamation case pursued by a former NSW Treasurer heard in front of a jury.
Ex-Labor treasurer Eric Roozendaal is suing the media company over a series of articles that appeared in Fairfax publications, including the Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times, between May 2014 and March this year.
The stories relate to evidence Labor MP Jodi McKay gave to the ICAC about the source of damaging allegations that were spread about her throughout her electorate and political party donations.
According to a Federal Court judgement handed down on Tuesday, Mr Roozendaal claims material published in May, 2014, carried the imputation he was, in "a deep act of treachery", involved in distributing leaflets with the damaging allegations about Ms McKay.
He also claims other articles alleged he "connived" with mining tycoon Nathan Tinkler and did his bidding to "blacken" Ms Mckay's reputation and undermine her 2011 re-election bid.
Mr McKay is now the member for Strathfield.
Fairfax Media denied the stories conveyed such imputations and that they were capable of defaming Mr Roozendaal, the judgment states.
The organisation applied for a jury trial.
It submitted a jury would represent the very audience that must be considered in deciding whether those imputations arose.
However, Justice Anthony Besanko found Fairfax did not establish a sufficient reason to warrant the case departing from the normal mode of trial - with a judge only.
He dismissed the application for a jury trial.
The trial is set to go ahead before a judge on September 1.
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