Should the proceedings be dismissed?
28 Mr Thomas's conduct on 1 February 2019 is capable of being characterised as a contempt in the face of the Court. Mr Thomas has done nothing to retract or qualify the vicious, violently expressive, and intimidating statements that he made to the Court. By those statements Mr Thomas attacked the integrity and authority of the Court, and made baseless and unwarranted attacks on the legal practitioners for the respondents. If anything, Mr Thomas's written submissions dated 22 February 2019 perpetuate and enlarge his attacks upon the Court.
29 The attacks on the Court appear in part to be Mr Thomas's response to the Court's dismissal of two interlocutory applications: Thomas v University of Melbourne [2018] FCA 1978; Thomas v University of Melbourne (No 2) [2018] FCA 2024. The attacks are also to be considered in the context of the Court's rejection of a number of documents that Mr Thomas has sought to file with the Registry. Most of the documents that Mr Thomas has sought to file are prolix. Many of them contain unsupported allegations of a scandalous nature against the parties, their legal practitioners, a number of non-parties, the Court, and its officers. Some of the documents contain allegations of conspiracy, fraud, dishonesty, breaches of the Crimes Act 1958 (Vic), the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth), and the Criminal Code (Cth). Allegations of this type are not confined to documents that have been rejected. Some of the documents that Mr Thomas has succeeded in filing are littered with words that are calculated to impute fraud, conspiracy, wilful misconduct, and criminal conduct. These words exist amongst a maze of logorrheic allegations and claims by Mr Thomas in various documents across the four proceedings that are on a scale which no court should have to attempt to untangle and decipher.
30 By way of illustration, the documents that have been rejected include an interlocutory application dated 24 January 2019 in VID 950 of 2018 which names 49 respondents, most of whom are not respondents to the four proceedings that Mr Thomas has commenced. The respondents to the rejected interlocutory application include the Fair Work Ombudsman, Mr Thomas's former lawyers, the Victorian Legal Services Board, and legal practitioners acting for the respondents. Most of the 49 named respondents are individuals. The orders that were sought in the rejected interlocutory application were expansive -
Leave to Issue Subpoenas to witnesses or persons complicit in fraud:
1. An order for leave to issue subpoenas.
2. Interlocutory order for mandamus, prohibition or an injunction against the Federal Court of Australia under s 46PO or s 46PP of the Australian Human Rights Commission Act; s 38 of the Judiciary Act 1903; or s 75 of the Commonwealth Constitution; and/or s 21 through 24 of the Federal Court Act 1976 to recuse the Federal Court of Australia and/or Judges of the Federal Court of Australia, and any other related parties employed/affiliated with University of Melbourne (or any other Respondents), from taking on administrative decisions/judicial roles in these or any related proceedings, where those acts/omissions, past, present or future were/are the use of the rules as an instrument of tyranny, unreasonable, illogical, oppressive, in breach of procedural fairness, or otherwise in excess of the jurisdiction of the Federal Court of Australia.
31 Other rejected documents include separate interlocutory applications dated 9, 17, and 22 January 2019 that subpoenas issue to at least 39 persons to give evidence and produce documents at the interlocutory hearings that were fixed for 1 February 2019. Those hearings were described in one of the rejected applications as "fraud hearings". The named persons included: solicitors and counsel for the respondents; Mr Thomas's former lawyers; the Law Institute of Victoria; the Victorian Legal Services Board; and the Victorian Legal Services Commissioner.
32 On 29 October 2018, Mr Thomas was unsuccessful in judicial review proceedings that he commenced in the Supreme Court of Victoria in relation to a decision by the Legal Services Commissioner to close a complaint that Mr Thomas had made about his former lawyers: Thomas v Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner [2018] VSC 645. The complaint was closed under s 277(1)(a) of the Legal Profession Uniform Law (Victoria), which authorises a complaint to be closed after a preliminary assessment if it is vexatious, misconceived, frivolous, or lacking in substance. I infer that, amongst other collateral purposes, Mr Thomas intends in these proceedings to attempt to agitate further his grievances against the Legal Services Commissioner, the Legal Services Board, and his former lawyers.
33 It is important to emphasise that the documents to which I have referred are only examples of various prolix documents of Mr Thomas that the Court has rejected.
34 In Bahonko v Nurses Board of Victoria [2008] FCAFC 29 at [10] the Full Court (Gyles, Stone and Buchanan JJ) said the following, which is apposite to these proceedings -
The liberty which the Court frequently extends to unrepresented litigants was systematically abused by Ms Bahonko in the present case. She seems unwilling to respect reasonable standards of conduct in the material which she appears to feel she may place before the Court as a matter of right. The processes of the Court and the Court itself are brought into disrespect if unreasonable relaxation of ordinary standards is extended to litigants in person simply for the reason that they are without legal assistance. There is no basis to think that the rights of any litigant in person are infringed or diminished by the steady insistence that proceedings in this Court are not be used as a means of sullying the reputation of other parties to the proceedings or third parties who are not directly involved in the proceedings at all. Ms Bahonko, by her conduct, breached the necessary standards in a systematic and apparently intentional way.
35 So too are the observations of Ipp JA and Brownie A-JA in Wentworth v Graham (2003) 57 NSWLR 741 at [24] in relation to the conduct of hearings -
The proper conduct of hearings in the courtroom depends largely on all participants in the proceedings observing certain conventions. These conventions are substantially based on reasonable control over feelings, and respect for others and the judicial institution itself. The courtroom is a place where, not infrequently, the atmosphere becomes intense, emotions become inflamed, and patience wears thin. Sometimes things are said which may be regretted later. Nowadays, virtually all judges adopt a robust attitude to behaviour of this kind. There is a strong reluctance to resort to the remedy of contempt of court to restrain those who in the heat of litigation say things that are rude or insulting or disparaging to the presiding judicial officer. But there comes a time when it is no longer appropriate for judges to be impervious to improper behaviour by litigants, particularly those who make false allegations, are consistently rude, provocative, aggressive and obstructive, and who refuse to accept the decisions of the court. Care must be taken to preserve a proper degree of restraint, decorum and respect in the courtroom, otherwise the quality of justice will degenerate and administration of justice will be harmed. Eventually, steps must be taken to ensure that the time of the court and other parties is not wasted, and unnecessary costs are not incurred in futile litigation launched by obsessive and obdurate litigants.
36 The Court has implied power to protect its own processes: Jackson v Sterling Industries Ltd (1987) 162 CLR 612. The implied power is confirmed by the Court's power under s 23 of the Federal Court of Australia Act to make orders of such kinds as it considers appropriate. In Cocker v Tempest (1841) 7 M & W 502 at 503-4; 151 ER 864 at 865 Alderson B described the power as follows -
The power of each Court over its own process is unlimited; it is a power incident to all Courts, inferior as well as superior; were it not so, the Court would be obliged to sit still and see its own process abused for the purpose of injustice. The exercise of the power is certainly a matter for the most careful discretion; and where there are conflicting statements of facts, I agree that it is in general much better not to try the question between the parties on affidavit. The power must be used equitably; but if it be made out that the process of the Court is used against good faith, the Court ought to interfere to prevent it, for the purpose of administering justice.
37 The observations of Alderson B have been cited many times: see, for example, Jackson v Sterling Industries Ltd (1987) 162 CLR 612 at p 638 (Gaudron J); von Risefer v Permanent Trustee Company Ltd [2005] QCA 109; 1 Qd R 681 at [14] (Keane JA); Manolakis v Director of Public Prosecutions (2009) 108 SASR 451 at [15] (Gray J); Velissaris v Dynami Pty Ltd [2013] VSCA 299; 306 ALR 256 at [116] (Whelan JA).
38 Mr Thomas's statements in Court on 1 February 2019 together with his written submissions dated 22 February 2019 are extremely serious and concerning. They are manifestations of an entrenched pattern of querulous behaviour. I have a high degree of confidence that while these proceedings remain on foot, Mr Thomas will continue systematically to attempt to abuse the processes of the Court, to reject the authority of the Court, to attempt to file prolix documents, to make scurrilous allegations, and to attempt to use the proceedings to vex the respondents, and other persons such as their legal representatives, his former lawyers, and the Legal Services Commissioner, who are not parties to the proceedings. In these circumstances, the Court has a responsibility to protect its processes, and to address the improper hindrance of its ability to make its resources available to other litigants. In relation to this latter consideration, see Bhamjee v Forsdick [2004] 1 WLR 88 at [15] (Lord Phillips MR) and Attorney-General v Ebert [2002] 2 All ER 789 at [35]-[36] (Brooke LJ).
39 The power to dismiss a proceeding as an abuse of process should not be exercised lightly. However, in the extraordinary circumstances of these proceedings, the considered response of the Court is that it should protect its integrity, its authority, its processes, and its resources, by making orders that the four proceedings be dismissed.
40 I shall make directions for written submissions on the question of the costs of the proceedings.
I certify that the preceding forty (40) numbered paragraphs are a true copy of the Reasons for Judgment herein of the Honourable Justice Wheelahan.