Substitution
49 Gibb DCJ did not err by failing to give reasons for rejecting an application to substitute the second respondent for the first respondent as defendant. On her Honour's reasoning, she did not get to that application because she declined to set aside the order made by Garling DCJ. I consider the reasoning to have been flawed, but it explained why her Honour did not accede to the application.
50 Part 17 r 1 of the District Court Rules liberally provides for amendment in proceedings. Part 17 r 4 relevantly provided and still provides -
"4.(1) Where any relevant period of limitation expires after the date of filing of a statement of claim and after that expiry an application is made under rule 1 for leave to amend the statement of claim by making the amendment mentioned in any of subrules (3), (4) and (5), the Court may in the circumstances mentioned in that subrule make an order giving leave accordingly, notwithstanding that the period has expired.
(3) Where there has been a mistake in the name of a party and the Court is satisfied that the mistake was not misleading nor such as to cause reasonable doubt as to the identity of the person intended to be made a party, the Court may make an order for leave to make an amendment to correct the mistake, whether or not the effect of the amendment is to substitute a new party.
…
(5A) An amendment made pursuant to an order made under this rule shall, unless the Court otherwise orders, relate back to the date of filing of the statement of claim."
51 Was there a mistake in the name of a party? In Bridge Shipping Pty Ltd v Grand Shipping SA (1991) 173 CLR 231 the High Court considered a rule empowering amendment which included, "(4) A mistake in the name of a party may be corrected under paragraph (c), whether or not the effect is to substitute another person as a party". The defendant to a claim that goods had been damaged in transit cross-claimed against the owner of the vessel, then ascertained that the vessel had been chartered to the carrier of the goods and applied to substitute the charterer for the owner. McHugh J, with whom Brennan and Deane JJ agreed, said (at 259-61) -
"The concluding words of sub-r. (4) 'whether or not the effect is to substitute another person as a party' enable a plaintiff to substitute one person for another person as a party to the action. Those words also imply that the fact that the plaintiff intended to sue the person who was sued does not prevent the sub-rule applying provided that there was a mistake in the name of the person sued. Moreover, a plaintiff may make 'a mistake in the name of a party' not only because the plaintiff mistakenly believes that a certain person, whom the plaintiff can otherwise identify, bears a certain name but also because the plaintiff mistakenly believes that a person who answers a particular description bears a certain name. Thus, a plaintiff may make a mistake 'in the name of a party' because, although intending to sue a particular person whom the plaintiff knows by sight, the plaintiff is mistaken as to that person's name. Equally, the plaintiff may make a mistake 'in the name of a party' because, although intending to sue a person whom the plaintiff knows by a particular description, eg the driver of a certain car, the plaintiff is mistaken as to the name of the person who answers that description. In both cases, the plaintiff knows the person intended to be sued by reference to some property or properties which is or are peculiar to that person but is mistaken as to the name of that person. In the first case, the properties which identify the person are personal characteristics; in the second case, they are the properties which are of the essence of the description of that person. But for the purpose of sub-r. (4) that distinction is irrelevant. In both cases, the plaintiff was mistaken only as to the name of the person intended to be sued. There is no warrant for treating sub-r (4) as dealing only with the case where the properties which identify the party are inherent properties. That is, there is no warrant for treating sub-r. (4) as dealing only with the case where the plaintiff says: 'The person I wish to substitute as a party is that entity which I identified by certain inherent properties peculiar to it but whose name I mistakenly believed was X.' The sub-rule applies equally to the case where the plaintiff says: 'The person I wish to substitute as a party is that entity which I identified by reference to certain properties which are true of it and of no one else and whose name I mistakenly believed was X'. In both cases, a mistake in the name of the party has occurred and can be seen to have occurred only because the person sued does not have or is not identified by some property or properties which is or are peculiar to the person intended to be sued and to no one else.
Rule 36.01(4) is a remedial rule and should be given a beneficial interpretation. It is proper to give it the widest interpretation which its language will permit [Holmes v Permanent Trustee Co of New South Wales Ltd (1932) 47 CLR 113 at p 119]. It should be interpreted to cover not only cases of misnomer, clerical error and misdescription but also cases where the plaintiff, intending to sue a person he or she identifies by a particular description, was mistaken as to the name of the person who answers that description."
52 The enquiry, then, is into whom the claimant intended to sue. On the evidence in Bridge Shipping Pty Ltd v Grand Shipping SA, it was held that there had not been a mistake in the name of a party because the defendant had intended to sue the owner of the vessel and was not mistaken as to the entity which answered the description of the carrier. McHugh J distinguished Lloyd Steel Co (Aust) Pty Ltd v Jade Shipping SA (1985) 1 NSWLR 213, in which the plaintiff's solicitor intended to sue the carrier and believed as a result of searches of the Lloyd's Register that the defendant was the carrier.
53 The present case is of the Lloyd Steel Co (Aust) Pty Ltd v Jade Shipping SA kind. I have no doubt that Mr Santone, for present purposes to be equated with the appellant, intended to sue the occupier of the Canterbury Road premises. The appellant's right of action was against the occupier; Mr Santone asked the legal searcher for the name and address of the companies trading at the premises; and the statement of claim alleged that the defendant was the occupier of the premises. The mistake was as to the name of the entity which answered the description of the occupier of the premises. In my opinion, there was a mistake in the name of a party.
54 Should the Court be satisfied that the mistake was not misleading nor such as to cause reasonable doubt as to the identity of the person intended to be made a party? This was really not addressed either in the evidence or in submissions. From the affidavit of Mr Santone, the first respondent and the second respondent "shared a common address and common directors". Gibb DCJ was told by Mr Hull that they had the same insurer, and he appeared for both companies before her Honour; he also appeared for both companies in the appeal. The relationship is underlined by the first respondent's invitation to submit an offer of settlement. That the appellant intended to sue the occupier of the Canterbury Road premises would have been obvious to the respondents, and was emphasised by the correspondence in which the appellant asked who the occupier was if it was not the first respondent. I do not think the naming of the first respondent as defendant misled either of the respondents or caused reasonable doubt as to the identity of the person intended to be made a party: on the contrary, it seems to me that there was a conscious enjoyment by the respondents of the appellant's mistake. No evidence from the respondents' side asserted that they or either of them had been misled or caused to doubt the identity of the person intended to be made a party. This requirement of Pt 17 r 4(3) is in my opinion satisfied.
55 An order giving leave to amend to correct the mistake is discretionary. As was said of other aspects of a rule equivalent to Pt 17 r 4 in McGee v Yeomans (1977) 1 NSWLR 273 at 280, there is a general discretion to allow an amendment, notwithstanding that it raises a barred cause of action, whenever justice so requires, and -
"The Court hearing the application will necessarily have regard to the hardship of the plaintiff, if the amendment is refused, and the prejudice to the defendant, if it is granted. It must also consider all other relevant circumstances, such as the fault of the plaintiff or his advisers, the period of time since the limitation has expired, and the defendant's knowledge of the new cause of action or the new capacity."
56 The respondents, or at least the second respondent, submitted that substitution of the second respondent for the first respondent as defendant should be refused in the exercise of the discretion. They said that the identity of the second respondent as occupier had been known since April 1988, that there had been failure properly to prosecute a claim against it since that date, and indeed that the appellant's notice of motion was never served on the second respondent. (There was no finding as to this, or evidence on which it could be found one way or the other: as I have indicated, the question over service of the notice of motion on the second respondent went away when Mr Hull appeared for it as well as the first respondent.) There was reference to presumptive prejudice, and actual prejudice was asserted in that the appellant's psychological condition was said to have deteriorated since April 1998.
57 The respondents globally imported for this purpose their written submissions in relation to extension of the limitation period. They suggested that Gibb DCJ's exercise of discretion on that matter should be transposed to an exercise of discretion as to amendment. I do not agree: the issues are not the same, and the circumstances to which regard is to be had and the weighing-up process in exercising the discretion are not the same. I have outlined in the preceding paragraph what I believe to be the principal available considerations extracted from the written submissions. I am unimpressed by them or anything else able to be gleaned from the written submissions. Refusing an order giving leave to amend to correct the mistake would be an unwarranted hardship on the appellant when, as I have said, it must have been obvious to the respondents that the appellant intended to sue the occupier of the Canterbury Road premises. The respondents must have known which of them was the occupier, and while the appellant's lawyers were less than vigilant in his interests the respondents can not have been in doubt before or after April 1988 that he was endeavouring to prosecute his proceedings against the occupier. I do not consider that material prejudice to the respondents, relevantly the second respondent, should be presumed or has been established, certainly not such as to call for an exercise of discretion against the appellant.