It probably is. It cost $400,000.
This is letterbox #9 in the Watermark Apartments, Victoria Street, Manly.
In the image, the letterbox is locked. This was not always the case.
When Trish moved into apartment 9 in July 2016, she decided to keep the letterbox unlocked to allow the postman to place small packages into the box which would not fit through the slot.
This drove the strata committee to distraction. One month after she moved in, Trish received this email from Gary, the chair of the owners corporation - “I notice your mailbox has been left unlocked for quite a while?”
Trish continued to leave the letterbox unlocked. She continued to receive emails from Gary asking her to lock the box because thieves can use an open letterbox to identify the lock barrel and make a skeleton key to access all letterboxes to steal mail for identity theft. She ignored these emails.
On 24 May 2017, Gary sent her an email, which he forwarded to all owners - he said that her leaving the mailbox open “is the likely cause” of thieves obtaining a skeleton key, that all boxes may have to be re-keyed, and that compensation would be sought from the owner of Unit 9.
The next day, Trish replied by email which she copied in to all owners. The email was sarcastic but not malicious -
Your assertion/s that a single unlocked letterbox has allowed a criminal milieu to stalk the watermark building, and spend the time necessary to copy barrels/locks in order to then construct a master key is farfetched.
Your consistent attempt to shame me publicly is cowardly. It is also offensive, harassing and menacing through use of technology to threaten me. Please stop!
Gary brought a defamation suit based on that email. He was awarded $120,000 at the trial in the District Court for his humiliation.
But on appeal, the NSW Court of Appeal decided to apply a 185 year old precedent case from England of Toogood v Spyring (1834) to decide that although the comments in the email were defamatory, they were protected by a common law privilege.
As a result, the NSW Court of Appeal dismissed the defamation suit and ordered Gary to pay Trish's legal fees for both the trial and the appeal which I estimate are at least $200,000. In addition, Gary has to pay his own legal fees which could be at least $200,000.
The total Gary must pay $400,000 for taking the letterbox dispute to court. And he remained humiliated.
For more information, see my case note