Miski v Penrith Whitewater Stadium Ltd
[2017] NSWDC 110
At a glance
Source factsCourt
District Court of NSW
Decision date
2017-05-22
Source
Original judgment source is linked above.
Judgment (8 paragraphs)
Solicitors: Plaintiff: John Stonham & Co Lawyers Defendant: McCulloch & Buggy Lawyers File Number(s): 2014/332159 Publication restriction: None
Judgment
- The application before the court raises important case management issues in relation to the increasingly common problem of last-minute applications to vacate hearing dates in personal injury proceedings.
- Although the notice of motion the subject of this judgment purports to be an application for leave to rely upon an expert report served late, it is in fact an application for adjournment. The report in question was not only served eight months out of time, but less than 28 days before the hearing, in breach of r 31.28 Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW) ("UCPR"). It is common ground that the defendant cannot meet the report in time and that if the report goes into evidence, the hearing date of 5 June 2017 must be vacated.
- This is not the first time an application has been brought in these proceedings to vacate the hearing date. The previously allocated hearing date of 22 August 2016 also had to be vacated, and the date for the hearing scheduled to commence on 5 June has already been changed once to suit the parties.
- The procedural history of this claim is all too common in this court, in part because of past willingness to accept this kind of conduct in personal injury actions and to set aside refusal of adjournments by judges of this court as seen in Dubois v R & V Bergin Pty Ltd [2011] NSWCA 309. I acknowledge that this judgment seeks to balance the justice of the case with the unfairness to the opponent of the delay, but the consequences of these adjournments to witnesses, opponents and the court's resources, particularly in circumstances where they arise solely from dilatoriness by practitioners, are as harsh as they are unacceptable.