Geoffrey Rush will pocket his $2.9M in damages, after Nationwide News lost its fight to overturn the actor's defamation win.
The full bench of the Federal Court dismissed the appeal this morning and ordered both sides discuss how much should be paid in court costs.
Last April, Justice Michael Wigney ruled the Daily Telegraph had defamed Mr Rush in its front page world exclusive, which alleged he engaged in inappropriate conduct during the 2015 production of King Lear.
He found actress Eryn Jean Norvill was an unreliable witness who was "prone to embellishment or exaggeration".
The three Judges on the Full Court accepted the argument that he should not have attached "significance" to positive statements which Ms Norvill made about her co-star while she promoted the production.
But they did not believe a mistake had been made in assessing her overall credit.
"The Judge's assessment of Ms Norvill was based on findings that are not glaringly improbable, contrary to compelling inferences or inconsistent with incontrovertible facts or other uncontested testimony," the judgement read.
The amount awarded to Mr Rush was also deemed as "appropriately high" given the serious nature of what was said about the Oscar winning actor.
The Daily Telegraph's editor Ben English released a statement in reaction to the ruling.
"In November 2017 The Daily Telegraph published an article based on a public statement by the Sydney Theatre Company that an actor had made a complaint against Geoffrey Rush," he said.
"While we respect the findings of the Full Court the Rush case exposes the inadequacies of Australia's defamation laws and heightens the need for urgent legislative reform to enable public debate and to encourage women to come forward with their concerns.
"In that context we are very disappointed that the appellate court did not reverse Justice Wigney's findings as to the credibility of Eryn Jean Norvill or reverse His Honour's decision to exclude the testimony of Yael Stone.
"We support both women in their decision to share their complaints.
"We will continue to report on the issues such as these which are of great concern to the Australian public.
"As stated by High Court Chief Justice Susan Kiefel last week, there is no place for sexual harassment in any workplace."
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiiAFodHRwczovL3d3dy45bmV3cy5jb20uYXUvbmF0aW9uYWwvZ2VvZmZyZXktcnVzaC1kZWZhbWF0aW9uLWFwcGVhbC1mZWRlcmFsLWNvdXJ0LWhhbmRzLWRvd24tZGVjaXNpb24vOTYyZGIwNjctMDI1MC00MTI2LTk0YzItNmIwOTRmNzA2ODI40gFFaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAuOW5ld3MuY29tLmF1L2FydGljbGUvOTYyZGIwNjctMDI1MC00MTI2LTk0YzItNmIwOTRmNzA2ODI4?oc=5
2020-07-02 02:07:51Z
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