South Eastern Sydney Local Health District v Sandra Lazarus

Judgment

1. HER HONOUR: This is an application by notice of motion filed 29 May 2019 by the plaintiffs seeking an order for the temporary stay of these proceedings pending resolution of their application for compensation pursuant to s 97 of Victims Rights and Support Act 2013 which has been brought in the District Court relating to the same subject matter as these proceedings. The background to the matter, and the procedural history of the proceedings currently on foot, are set out in the affidavit sworn 29 May 2019 of Alexander Trevena, the solicitor for the plaintiffs, which I have read on the present application.
2. The application has been heard in the absence of the defendants. There has been no appearance for the defendants on successive occasions when this matter has been before the Court. Directions have been made for the notification to the defendants of this application and I understand that there has been at least on an occasion in the past an appearance on behalf of the first defendant. There are on the court file notices of appearance filed on behalf of the third defendant and an earlier notice of appearance filed for each of the defendants but when the matter was called before the Court there was no appearance by any of them.
3. The background to the current application arises out of transactions that have been found to have been fraudulent transactions conducted at Royal North Shore Hospital and the Royal Hospital for Women from 2008 to 2009.
4. These proceedings were commenced by way of statement of claim filed 21 July 2014. The claims made against the first defendant, as pleaded in the statement of claim, include the making by the first defendant of knowingly false and fraudulent representations, with the intention that the plaintiffs, by their employees or agents, would act in reliance on the said representations. The representations include representations as to the use of various devices to perform diagnostic tests and the like.
5. It is alleged that the first defendant also owed the first plaintiff a fiduciary duty and breached the fiduciary duty she owed to that plaintiff; a body corporate also constituted as the South Eastern Sydney and Illawarra Area Health Service under the Health Services Act 1997. It is also alleged that the first defendant breached a fiduciary duty owed to the second plaintiff, which was, at all material times, constituted as the Northern Sydney and Central Coast Area Health Service, a body corporate constituted under the Health Services Act 1997.