Is there a requirement to identify a cause of action?
- In Lynx Engineering Consultants Pty Ltd v The ANI Corporation Ltd (No 2) (2007) 163 FCR 372 Siopsis J, with reference to the (then applicable) rule for 'identity discovery' in the Federal Court of Australia, said (at [26]) that:
"The definition of 'description' in O 15A r 1 is indicative of the limited nature of the information which is available to an applicant under this rule - being the basic information needed to commence a proceeding, namely, the name, address, sex and occupation of the person to be sued, and whether that person is a natural person, or a corporation. The fact that O 15A r 1 provides that the definition of 'description' 'includes' these items of information, emphasises the limited scope of the information that is obtainable under this rule. Accordingly, this rule will have application where the applicant has already identified a cause of action against an anonymous person or persons and desires to commence a proceeding against that person or those persons, but is unable to do so because of the absence of the necessary information."
(emphasis added)
- In Care Park, Barrett JA (with whose reasons Beazley P, Campbell JA both expressly agreed and with whom Basten JA reasoned to similar effect at [8]) said at [104] that those observations by Siopsis J also applied to r 5.2 of the UCPR (with the definition of 'identity or whereabouts' in r 5.1 substantially replicating the concept of 'description' under the former O 15A r 1 of the Federal Court Rules). This passage was also approved by Campbell J in Brydon at [20].
- Prior to those two decisions, as noted, McDougall J doubted that there was a requirement that a cause of action be known to the applicant, subject to the identity (or whereabouts) of the prospective defendant.
- I accept that care must be exercised before a Judge considering the construction and application of r 5.2 of the UCPR impermissibly glosses the rule by importing requirements not supported by the text and, further, by the context in which the rules appear.
- Nevertheless, in the first instance, I respectively consider myself bound to follow what Barrett JA said in Care Park at [103] - [104], through which his Honour applied the approach of Siopsis J to the construction to r 5.2. Properly construed, an applicant's successful invocation of r 5.2 means that:
1. an applicant for preliminary discovery cannot have formed what Barrett JA described as a 'genuinely held and objectively based desire' to commence an action against the person concerned unless it has identified a reasonably arguable cause of action available to it; and
2. the reason the applicant has not yet commenced the action is because it does not know of any one or more of the limited matters referred to in r 5.1.
- In other words, as to (a), whilst there is no express or free-standing requirement for an applicant to have identified an arguable action against the person concerned, without its identification, the applicant cannot be said to have an objectively based desire to commence the action against it.
- To my mind, it is not to the point, on the facts in this case, that the applicant's 'desire' at the time it brings the application can subsequently change so that, for example, in this case, upon review of the policy or policies it has accessed after an order for discovery under r 5.2, Roller Truck ascertains that it has no right of action and refrains from commencing a suit. That is not, to my mind, the type of change in circumstance referred to in the cases when reference is made to an applicant's 'conditional' desire. The example given by Barrett JA at [118] in Care Park relating to an applicant's 'conditional desire' refers to the situation of someone who knows what it wants to do, but conditions that intended course of conduct upon the happening of an anticipated event or, perhaps, may be frustrated by an event which is not anticipated. So long as the desire is genuinely held and objectively based at the time it is expressed, that is enough to engage the rule. In the litigation in the Court of Appeal involving the car parks, the RTA knew that it had an action, but for reasons other than the availability of an action, it contemplated that it may have had other reasons for not proceeding to commence the action. Examples of these reasons were referred to by Barrett JA at [116]. None of those matters involved uncertainty on the part of the RTA that it identified an action in contract (or action in debt) against the park users [12] , even if it was uncertain whether it might be met with defences in the case of individual park users, or whether it might experience difficulties in prosecuting or enforcing actions against the park users. Knowing it had the cause of action, what prompted it to apply for preliminary discovery was to ascertain the identity and whereabouts of the park users. In short, the RTA did not need, nor sought, preliminary discovery to find out whether it had a cause of action at all against the users of the car parks.
- In the case here, Roller Truck not only does not know the name of an insurer to sue. It does not know whether or not it can commence an action against an insurer to Menzies Aviation. The circumstance that it is aware of a statutory right of action under s 48 is insufficient, without knowledge of the facts that make out a third party beneficiary's entitlement to sue an insurer under that provision. At the moment, the posited right under s 48 is an abstraction, or only a possibility for potential invocation. The circumstance that Roller Truck understands that there is a compulsory requirement in Menzies Aviation to have insurance does not say anything in itself about who is covered by such insurance. If Roller Truck does not know whether it can commence an action, it is not at the point where it can be said that it has an objectively based desire to commence the action.
- As to (b), this is, in effect, a causation question. It is the ignorance about the identity or whereabouts (as that expression is defined) of the person concerned which is the stumbling block to the applicant giving effect to its desire to commence the action against the person concerned and which motivates the applicant to bring this particular application under r 5.2. Here, however, it is not ignorance of the identity of the person concerned which is really holding the applicant back from commencing the action. It is ignorance of the facts that might allow it to invoke the statutory action under s 48 of the IC Act.
- I respectfully accept the force of what Campbell J said in Brydon against the 'blending' of the operation of rr 5.2 and 5.3. If it was enough (subject to other requirements conceded in this case by Menzies Aviation) for an applicant in Roller Truck's position to obtain an order for preliminary discovery under r 5.2 where it needed certain information that it did not have to determine (a) who was the insurer and (b) whether to bring a claim against an insurer, that would be a 'blended' application which, if acceded to, could render recourse to the specific rule in r 5.3 otiose and thereby circumvent other requirements associated with that rule [13] . That concern cannot be overcome, as the applicant submits, by reference to the broad scope of discovery permissible under r 5.2(2)(b). That puts the cart before the horse. The scope of discovery permitted under r 5.2(2)(b) is only considered once the Court finds a valid requirement under r 5.2(1) and is inclined to exercise its discretion to order discovery.
- Roller Truck apprehends that it might have a possible cause of action against an insurer but will only know for sure after an order for preliminary discovery has been made and enforced. That is not the purpose to which the power exercisable under r 5.2 is directed.
- Roller Truck is not currently in the position where the stumbling block to its commencing a proceeding is ignorance of the identity of the insurer. Such desire as it has to commence an action against a person concerned is not objectively based even if it is genuinely held. The threshold requirement in r 5.2(1)(a) is not satisfied.