legal battle revolves around a Microsoft Teams meeting with the partners of 15 players <\/a>on February 4.<\/p>\nThe Herald Sun was earlier told the 14-minute virtual meeting was held to inform families of the \u201cchallenging\u201d circumstances over May\u2019s departure from the club.<\/p>\n
He formally left MFC on March 1.<\/p>\n
Ms Dade says during this meeting, the club\u2019s representatives \u201cshared information which was private, confidential and sensitive\u201d to both her and May, \u201cmuch of which was false, inaccurate or misleading\u201d.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s demanding an apology and damages from the club, its coach Steven King and general manager Alan Richardson for a \u201cserious invasion\u201d of her privacy, which she says has caused \u201csignificant\u201d harm to both her and her family.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe breaches have caused Ms Dade emotional distress, embarrassment, psychiatric harm and anguish,\u201d Federal Court documents, released to the Herald Sun on Monday, state.<\/p>\n
\u201cMs Dade has also been subject to rumours, personal ridicule and humiliation by members of the public.\u201d<\/p>\n
Police conducted a welfare check at the couple\u2019s home on January 29, where no arrests were made or charges laid.<\/p>\n
The police visit was reported in the Herald Sun the next day.<\/p>\n
On February 4, Ms Dade claims the club committed its first privacy breach by releasing a statement confirming police attended May\u2019s home.<\/p>\n
She says by this date, Melbourne Football Club had \u201cdivulged various information about the Home Visit and related confidential, personal and sensitive information of Ms Dade and Mr May to the AFL\u201d.<\/p>\n
This, she says, was the second breach.<\/p>\n
Also on February 4, the club invited players\u2019 partners to the Teams meeting scheduled for the next day.<\/p>\n
The meeting was to \u201chave a conversation surrounding a matter which was said to impact the football program\u201d, as well as introduce the partners to Richardson, King and then-chief executive Paul Guerra.<\/p>\n
At 7.30pm on February 5, players\u2019 partners met online where private information was allegedly disclosed.<\/p>\n
Details of what was said has been subject to a confidentiality order on the court file.<\/p>\n
\u201cRepresentatives of the MFC acknowledged that the information being shared was private and sensitive, and asked attendees not to further divulge the information,\u201d court documents state.<\/p>\n
\u201cRepresentatives of the MFC acknowledged that they were not aware of all of the facts surrounding the incidents being discussed,\u201d material continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was unclear why the private and sensitive information was being shared with the attendees by representatives of the MFC.\u201d<\/p>\n
This, Ms Dade claims, was the third breach.<\/p>\n
Ms Dade said she wasn\u2019t contacted about the public statement, the meeting, or asked for her comments or input, and afterwards, she \u201craised her concerns and complaints about the actions and inactions\u201d of the club and its agents with Melbourne Football Club, the AFL Players Association, the AFL and the AFL integrity unit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe responses by the MFC and the AFL were slow and the concerns and complaints were not resolved,\u201d she claims.<\/p>\n
Court documents state Ms Dade\u2019s lawyers sent the club, King and Richardson an offer to resolve the privacy dispute on April 29, with a request to respond by May 13.<\/p>\n
Instead, the club\u2019s lawyers requested a two-week extension.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, on or about May 13, MFC board member Geoff Porz \u201ccontacted Mr May\u2019s solicitors to discuss (Ms Dade\u2019s) claims\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ms Dade claimed this \u201cwas an attempt to communicate with (her) and apply pressure to (her) through her partner, which demonstrated a continued lack of insight and awareness of the critical issues which had caused the Applicant to raise complaint\u201d.<\/p>\n
The next day, on May 14, Ms Dade\u2019s lawyers agreed to give MFC an extension of time to respond, and flagged their concerns about the Porz communication, and that \u201cour client believes that this may be an attempt to influence and pressure her\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ms Dade filed her action in the Federal Court on May 22.<\/p>\n
According to a concise statement on the file, Ms Dade claims \u201ca serious invasion of privacy\u201d by the club on three occasions, and by King and Richardson on one occasion.<\/p>\n
She wants the club, King and Richardson to declare that they \u201chave caused a serious invasion\u201d of her privacy.<\/p>\n
She is also seeking an apology from all parties, damages including exemplary damages, interest and costs.<\/p>\n
The matter will return to court for a case management hearing on September 11.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In bombshell court documents, Sachi Dade says the club and its officials leaked fake and sensitive information about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":753071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-753070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=753070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/753071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}