The adjournment application
5 At a directions hearing on 2 February I fixed a timetable for the filing and serving of further evidence and written submissions and listed for hearing on 9 February 2011 the matters that are the subject of this judgment. No further evidence was filed. Written submissions (of five and a half pages) were filed outside the timetable but they did not address the issues relevant to the hearing. This was the fourth set of written submissions Mr Chan filed purportedly in support of his various notices of motion.
6 When the case was called on for hearing on 9 February Mr Chan applied for an adjournment. He addressed the Court for approximately 1½ hours. I refused the application, indicating at the time that I would give my reasons later. These are my reasons.
7 With one exception, none of the matters Mr Chan raised was relevant to the question of the adjournment. The reason he gave was that the recent heat wave had interfered with his preparation. To an affidavit he affirmed on 7 February (which I shall take as having been read) he attached a newspaper report entitled "Finally some relief after hottest night in history". He stated that as a result of "this record-breaking heatwave" and the fact that he has no air-conditioning in his home, he had been unable to work efficiently and was "now running late" in his preparation for the hearing on 9 February. He described his situation as having been brought about by "some sort of a force majeure or an act of God that I cannot overcome". He also contended that, as a Newstart recipient, he lacked the means to rent an air-conditioned place for a few days in order to avoid the heat wave and continue his preparation.
8 In his written submissions Mr Chan referred to a number of authorities to support an argument that, absent an adjournment, he would be deprived of an adequate opportunity to prepare his case for hearing. I accept the general principles articulated in these authorities. The Court certainly has the power to adjourn a hearing in appropriate circumstances, as Mr Chan submitted. So, too, depriving a party of an adequate opportunity to prepare or present his or her case may amount to a denial of procedural fairness: see, e.g. Sullivan v Department of Transport (1978) 1 ALD 383. The question here, however, is not one of principle, but of the application of established principles.
9 In the particular circumstances of this case, I am not satisfied that the applicant was denied an opportunity to prepare for the hearing.
10 Although I certainly accept that there was a heat wave and I also accept that he has very limited means, there is no good reason why Mr Chan could not have taken himself to an air-conditioned public library to attend to the necessary preparation. Neither is there any reason why - instead of spending the time researching and preparing the submissions he did file - he did not use the time to prepare for the hearing of the motions. In my view, Mr Chan had sufficient opportunity to prepare for the hearing. In coming to this conclusion I took into account the subject matter of the notices of motion and the fact that Mr Chan had already filed a number of submissions and affidavits. I also took into account the fact that the judgment the subject of the stay application sought in the fourth notice of motion was delivered on 15 December last year and on 17 December I indicated to Mr Chan that if he wished to appeal that judgment he required leave and should identify the grounds.
11 Citing a number of authorities, Mr Chan submitted that an "adjournment should ordinarily be granted" where refusal would seriously prejudice a party. There are several difficulties with this submission. In the first place, the authorities he cited do not stand for such a proposition and all are distinguishable on the facts. One (Jordan v Smart [1961] NSWR 735) was concerned with the effect of a refusal on a criminal proceeding. Three of them (Frugtniet v State Bank of New South Wales [1999] NSWCA 458; Sali v SPC Ltd (1993) 67 ALJR 841 ("Sali") and Scott v Handley (1999) 58 ALD 373) were concerned with a situation in which a refusal of the adjournment had the effect of terminating the proceeding. That is not this case. In the fifth (Deangrove Pty Ltd v Commonwealth Bank of Australia [2002] FCA 1352) the application was made a month before the hearing date, not on the day of the hearing. Furthermore, in Deangrove the Court relied on Queensland v JL Holdings Pty Ltd (1997) 189 CLR 146, which the High Court disapproved in Aon Risk Services Australia Limited v Australian National University (2009) 239 CLR 175. Secondly, whilst it might have been inconvenient for him, I was not satisfied that refusing an adjournment would seriously prejudice Mr Chan and, for the reasons I have given, any prejudice he might suffer is largely, if not entirely, of his own making. Thirdly, the submission overlooks the repeated references in the authorities he cited to the interests of the applicant not being the only relevant consideration. For example, the majority in Sali (at 843) said that the court is also entitled to consider "the effect of an adjournment on court resources and the competing claims by litigants in other cases awaiting hearing in the court as well as the interests of the parties". These principles are given statutory force by the provisions of Part VB of the Act. No longer are these considerations merely relevant. They are mandatory.
12 In all the circumstances, I did not consider that it would further the overarching purpose of the civil practice and procedure provisions of the Act and the Rules of Court made under it to delay the hearing of these matters. In particular, it would not have been an efficient use of the judicial resources available for the purposes of the Court nor would it have facilitated the just resolution of the dispute between the parties in the quickest or most efficient way possible. These are matters to which I am bound to have regard in exercising the power Mr Chan seeks to invoke. See 37M of the Act.
13 Mr Chan also submitted that I erred in my earlier judgment when I referred to Mr Harris as "an employee of Catholic Care, Sydney, which operates Local Employment and Training Solutions (LETS) programs". He stated that I had repeated as fact errors made by the primary judge, I should amend those factual errors before proceeding further, and that would require an adjournment of the hearing to enable the amendment "to happen and take effect". For present purposes, at least, nothing turns on this. Any error I may have made in my description of Mr Harris did not affect the orders I made and the submission provides no support for an adjournment application. It is sufficient for me to note that Mr Chan disputed the employment relationship.
14 I should also say something about the other matters that Mr Chan raised.
15 First, Mr Chan disputed the validity of the retainer held by Corrs Chambers Westgarth, solicitors, ("Corrs") and challenged the notice of appearance entered by them, contending that they were not authorised to represent Mr Harris. Mr Chan's position was based on:
seeing, whilst waiting to enter the courtroom, a folder in the hands of a Corrs solicitor with the words "Catholic Church (Archdiocese of Sydney)" on the cover;
the solicitor's refusal to clarify the matter to his satisfaction; and
an alleged conversation with Mr Harris himself (not the subject of any evidence, but raised in submissions - submissions that were not served), in which he signalled his total lack of involvement in the case and advised Mr Chan that it was CatholicCare and not he, who had instructed solicitors (something, I might say, which is entirely consistent with him being employed by CatholicCare).
16 Mr Chan raised his concerns before the primary judge. His Honour confirmed with the Corrs solicitor that she was instructed to appear for Mr Harris. There is no proper basis for doubting the validity of the notice of appearance.
17 Mr Chan also disputed his obligation to serve Mr Harris's solicitors with copies of any documents he filed and informed the Court he had not served his submissions on them (despite my having reminded him at the directions hearing to do so). Mr Harris filed what was entitled a "notice of submitting appearance" referring to O 9 r 3(1) of the Federal Court Rules. It read:
Alan Harris of [address] appears and submits to the making of all orders sought, and the giving or entry of judgment in respect of all claims made, save as to costs.
18 In fact, O 9 r 3(1) makes no reference to a submitting appearance. Indeed, the Federal Court Rules do not use the term "submitting appearance". The Act does, however, provide for such an appearance. Section 38 provides:
Practice and procedure
(1) Subject to any provision made by or under this or any other Act with respect to practice and procedure, the practice and procedure of the Court shall be in accordance with Rules of Court made under this Act.
(2) In so far as the provisions for the time being applicable in accordance with subsection (1) are insufficient, the Rules of the High Court, as in force for the time being, apply, mutatis mutandis, so far as they are capable of application and subject to any directions of the Court or a Judge, to the practice and procedure of the Court.
(3) In this section, practice and procedure includes all matters in relation to which Rules of Court may be made under this Act.
[Emphasis in original.]
19 Regulation 23.02 of the High Court Rules (Cth) provides for a submitting appearance. It provides:
Submitting appearance
A defendant willing to submit to any order that the Court may make, save as to costs, may file a submitting appearance in Form 8.
20 The submitting appearance Corrs filed is substantially in the same form as that provided for in Form 8. Unlike r 6.11 of the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules (NSW) to which Mr Chan referred, the High Court Rules do not provide that a defendant who has filed a submitting appearance may not take any further step in the proceeding without the leave of the Court. It was in reliance on the predecessor of r 6.11 in the New South Wales Supreme Court Rules that Young J held in Trust Co of Australia Limited v Perpetual Trustees WA Limited (No. P2) (1995) 36 NSWLR 654, upon which Mr Chan relied, that a defendant who files a submitting appearance is not entitled to be given notice of any hearing. In any case, however, as Mr Chan himself acknowledged in his submissions, the rule provides for an exception where a court gives leave. In this case I made orders requiring Mr Chan to serve on Mr Harris any documents he filed. He made no application to set the orders aside. He should have complied with them.
21 As for the statements attributed to Mr Harris in the submissions, not only are they irrelevant to the adjournment application but, as they are not evidence, I disregard them.