Nature of the case
9 By statement of claim filed 15 September 2004 the plaintiff seeks compensatory and punitive damages for personal injuries sustained while visiting China in 1999 and 2000.
10 The Registrar was correct in his decision in saying that the pleadings were not in order. The statement of claim in its original form was defective. The defendants would not have been able to discern from that document what case they had to meet. However, an amended statement of claim has since been drafted. For the purposes of this application, I have taken the plaintiff's case at its highest. In so doing, I have accepted the facts as pleaded in the amended statement of claim as being correct. I also grant leave to join Luo, Gan, Party Secretary of the Political and Judiciary Committee of the CCP Central Committee and Chief Executive Officer of the 610 Office as a defendant. Lest there be no mistake, should this matter ultimately come to trial, these facts would almost certainly be disputed.
11 The plaintiff still seeks orders for compensatory, aggravated and exemplary damages and damages for personal injury, both physical and psychological. The types of injury she has and is suffering include severe migraine, maculopapular rash, head trauma, post traumatic stress disorder and major clinical depression. She alleges causes of action of wrongful arrests, assaults (torture) and false imprisonment. ASC wrongful arrests, assaults and batteries, torture, total restraint and false imprisonment.
12 From 26 January 2000 to 29 January 2000 the plaintiff alleges she was wrongfully arrested for being a Falun Gong practitioner, falsely imprisoned for 70 hours, assaulted and tortured, deprived of sleep, then repeatedly punched and kicked in the company of three. From 4 February 2000 to 11 February 2000, the plaintiff alleges that she was wrongfully arrested, imprisoned for seven days, deprived of sleep, assaulted and tortured. From 5 March 2000 to 4 November 2000 the plaintiff alleges she was assaulted, transported to an army camp, forced to stand for extended periods outside in the cold without adequate clothing, was beaten intermittently for 24 hours, falsely imprisoned for eight months, forced to wear shackles weighting 10kgs and forced to do physical labour seven days a week for ten hours a day manufacturing export products. The plaintiff further alleges that during this period she was put in a 12 square metre cell with 10 male prisoners for approximately two months, and on one occasion was forced before a closed circuit camera and had her clothing removed. There are more allegations of this nature made by the plaintiff.
13 The original statement of claim was filed on 15 September 2004 and refers to events which occurred from 31 December 1999 to 13 January 2001. Under s 18A of the Limitation Act 1969 (NSW), the plaintiff had three years to commence an action. Her statement of claim should have been filed by 13 January 2004, at the latest. There are provisions for an extension of time to commence proceedings - see ss 60C, 60E, 60G and 60I of the Limitation Act 1969. The plaintiff has sought that such an extension be granted.
14 Normally, expiration of the Limitation Act is a matter which is pleaded by way of defence. However, by seeking such an order it cannot be said that the plaintiff's claim is futile on the basis that it is statute barred. There is evidence to support her claim, including medical reports and the affidavit of Yuan Hongbing, Professor in Law, former Head of the Litigation Law Section of the Law Department of Beijing University and former Dean of the Law School of Guizhou Normal University.