Perpetual Trustee Company Ltd v CTC Group Pty Ltd
[2013] NSWCA 58
At a glance
Source factsCourt
Court of Appeal (NSW)
Decision date
2012-12-11
Before
Macfarlan JA, Meagher JA, Barrett JA, McCallum J, MacFarlan JA
Catchwords
- (2008) 21 VR 84 Mitchell Morgan Nominees Pty Ltd v Vella [2011] NSWCA 390
- Perpetual Trustee Company Limited v El-Bayeh (No. 2) [2011] NSWSC 1049 Before: McCallum J File Number(s): SC 2006/266040
Source
Original judgment source is linked above.
Catchwords
Judgment (10 paragraphs)
Judgment 1MACFARLAN JA: The Court delivered judgment on this appeal on 13 August 2012 (Perpetual Trustee Co Ltd v CTC Group Pty Ltd [2012] NSWCA 252, the "Principal Judgment"). It found that the respondent ("CTC") was liable in damages to the appellant ("Perpetual") for breaching its obligations of care under a mortgage origination deed. The Court did not deal with the assertion made by CTC in its Notice of Contention that, if it is liable to Perpetual, its liability is limited by the apportionment provision contained in s 35 of the Civil Liability Act 2002. As it noted in [6], the Court took this course because it was of the view that at the hearing of the appeal CTC made concessions that required rejection of its Notice of Contention. 2By Notice of Motion filed within the time prescribed by r 36.16(3A) of the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005, CTC requested the Court to deal with its Notice of Contention, claiming that it had not made the relevant concessions. As I accept that CTC's understanding of the interchanges that occurred between the bench and bar at the appeal hearing differed from that of the Court and that there has been no prejudice to Perpetual that cannot be cured, it is in the interests of justice that the Court now consider CTC's Notice of Contention. 3Prejudice to Perpetual that ensued from the interchanges at the hearing was that Perpetual, understandably in the circumstances, did not address the Court in relation to CTC's Notice of Contention. Perpetual has now had the opportunity to do so and the prejudice has thus been cured. I accordingly proceed to consider the Notice of Contention. 4By the Notice of Contention, CTC relevantly contended that Mr Youssef El-Bayeh, two Justices of the Peace and Resimac Ltd were concurrent wrongdoers who were responsible, with CTC, for the loss suffered by Perpetual. The primary judge found that Mr Youssef El-Bayeh acted fraudulently in procuring Perpetual to lend the money the subject of the proceedings to someone who Perpetual was led to believe was Mr David El-Bayeh. The Justices of the Peace witnessed various loan and mortgage documents purporting to be, but not, signed by Mr David El-Bayeh. Resimac acted as Perpetual's manager in relation to the loan (see [2] - [4] of the Principal Judgment). 5The primary judge dismissed Perpetual's claim against CTC and did not deal with CTC's apportionment defence (Perpetual Trustee Company Limited v El-Bayeh [2010] NSWSC 1487).