Patek, M. v Lord Mayor, Councillors & Citizens of the City of Melbourne [1986] FCA 35

Federal Court of Australia|1986-02-20|Before: Jenkinson J, Pincus J

Judgment - setting aside - applicant railing to appear on trial

espondent solicitor retusing to cansent £9 adjournment - applicant allegedly

applicant $s solicitors declining to act turcnear -

3.8. 408 at ¢lo Evans v. Bartiam C1937] A.C. 4:3 at 46u, 489 Rosing v. Ben shemesh Cloybud V.R. 173 at L7o9-L77

MICHAEL SATEF v. LOPD MAYOR, CoUMeIDL083 snp CITISENS

IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALTA ) VICTORIA DISTRICT REGISTRY ) NO. VG148 of 1984 )

AND: LORD MAYOR, COUNCILLORS AND CITIZENS OF THE CITY OF MELBOURNE

CORAM: Jenkinson d. PLACE: Melbourne DATE: 20 February, 1996

Motions to set aside judgments pronounced after trial of

The applicant failed to appear when the proceeding and cross-claim were called on for trial on 11 November 1985, on which day, after trial, judgment was pronounced for the respondent on the applicant''s claims and judgment was pronounced that the respondent recover $33,867.67 on the cross-claim against the

applicant. Notice of the motions to set aside those judgments was

The respondent granted a lease of a shop in the City Square of Melbourne for 6 months expiring on 8 February 1984. The

written lease was expressed to be to the applicant and Jeni Patek,

but it was executed only by the applicant and the respondent. The applicant alleges that the grant of the lease was in performance of an agreement partly in writing (being the lease) partly oral and partly to be implied, and that the respondent failed in breach of terms of that agreement to undertake divers activities calculated to attract prospective customers to the vicinity of the leased shop. The applicant alleges in the alternative that his taking the demise was induced by misrepresentations of an officer of the respondent concerning conditions which did, or which would, prevail in the vicinity of the shop and concerning the activities which the respondent would undertake in that vicinity. The misrepresentations are alleged to have been made fraudulently and to have constituted breaches of s.52 and s.53A of the Trade Practices Act 1974. The relief claimed 1n this proceeding by the applicant aincludes "an order declaring" the lease "void ab initio", or alternatively an order reducing the rent and other monetary obligations imposed by provisions of the lease, as well

The cross-claim was for recovery of the rent of $6,000, of which less than $2,000 has been paid, possession of the shop,

When the proceeding and cross-claim came on for trial before Pincus J. on 20 May 1985 the applicant sought an adjournment until a decision on his application for legal aid should be reached. The adjournment was granted upon the applicant's undertaking to the Court that he would give vacant

posession of the shop to the respondent not later than 19 June

The undertaking was honourad. On 6 Saptember 1985 [I fixed the trial for 11 November 1985 in the presence of the applicant

"".... What I propose is that I fix the proceeding and cross-claim for hearing before me on Monday, 11 November.

HIS HONOUR: And that on the basis, Miss Warren, that the proceeding will be heard then, whatever the outcome or whatever has happened in the meantime in relation to any application for legal aid. If some extraordinary circumstance which I cannot foresee, and I gather you cannot foresee, gives the applicant cause to think that he may be able to persuade the court further to defer the trial of the proceeding, 1t would be, in My view at any rate, essential that any such an application, designed to defer the hearing beyond the llth, should be made very promptly. I mean, an attempt to have the matter further adjourned when it is called on for hearing on the llth, TI find the thought virtually impossible to imagine the circumstances in

which that could succeed. I mean, if some extraordinary thing does happen, it should be made the subject of an application immediately."

In early November 1985 the applicant learnt that his application for legal aid had been, after long consideration, granted, but he aiso learnt that the solicitors who had been acting for him declined to act further, and that other solicitors, whom he had hoped to engage, would not act for him. His request of the respondent's solicitors, Messieurs Mallesons, that they consent to an adjournment of the trial was refused on 7 November 1985. He deposed in an affidavit sworn in support of these motions that his doctor had within a week before 11 November 1985

advised him to "avoid all stressful situations if at all

possible", and that he helieved himself to be "suffering from stress". None of the legally qualified persons with whom he had been in communication shortly before 11 November 1985 had suggested that he should himself appear on that day in order to seek an adjournment, he swore. He feared that he would he ineffective before the Court and formed the view, as he deposed, "that no useful purpose could be served by me attending at Court

without my case being prepared, without a file and without legal

representation. I trusted and hoped that the matter would simply be adjourned in my absence, in line with the request I had sent to Mallesons". He did not think that a communication to the Court in

It 1s a question, as to which I have been able to form no confident conclusion, whether the applicant abstained from appearance before the Court on 11 November 1985, and from written communication to the Court, for reasons of the kind he gave, and while under the influence of the fears and the distress which he Claimed were oppressing him, or whether he so abstained in effectuation of a plan to delay the final conclusion of the litigation 1n which he was engaged, and in which he had no hope of ultimate success, by suffering a judgment in his absence and by then instituting proceedings, of the kind now before me, to set the judgment aside. On balance I am persuaded to find that he did not abstain from appearance and from communication in the hope of achieving the delay of an expected ultimate defeat, but because he feared that he might do his case more harm by taking action than

by taking no action onl1l November 1985. His decision was

mistaken, but not one which was the product of bad faith, as I

In an affidavit filed in other proceedings, a copy of which the applicant has exhibited to his affidavit in support of the motions, he has verified in general terms the allegations upon which he relies in his proceeding and by way of defence to the cross-claim. Correspondence between the applicant and the officer of the respondent corporation to whom the misrepresentations and promises are aimputed, upon which the applicant relies, was tendered in evidence. It is not easy to accommodate the applicant's case, as disclosed by his pleadings and his affidavit, to that correspondence. But the course of authority seems to be against allowing, on an application of this kind, much weight to what is necessarily an incomplete, impressionistic evaluation of the strength of the applicant's case and of his prospects of success at trial, if his application be granted: see Grimshaw v. Dunbar £1953] 1 0.B. 408 at 416; Evans v. Bartlam (£19371 A.C. 473

at 480, 489; Rosing v. Ben Shemesh £19601 V.R. 173 at 176-177.

The respondent has once already incurred the costs of coming to trial. The evidence strongly suggests that the applicant will not be able to pay the costs of the respondent which will be rendered abortive if his motions be granted, unless he be successful in this litigation. To condition the grant of the orders now sought by the applicant upon payment by him of

unreasonable, unless it were a delay deliberately calculated to

ensure that the motions would not be heard until February 1986. I

have found that no such a calculated delay was made.

Upon a balance of the considerations for and against

granting these motions I have concluded that I should order that

the judgments pronounced and the order made by the Court on 11

November 1985 be set aside, that the costs of the respondent

rendered abortive in consequence of the making of the aforesaid

order and the costs of the respondent of the motions of which

notice was filed on 17 December 1985 be paid by the applicant and

that the proceeding and the cross-claim be placed in the list of

Lo precedi", i... 5 Ht a Aue COPY of the st Tadgment herein of the

At a glance

Court

Decision date

Before

Source

Judgment (45 paragraphs)

Cited By (33)