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NCAT Appeal Panel | 2014-04-09
Tenants were terminated for non-payment of rent following an uncontested hearing where the landlord's agent gave evidence and the Member recorded findings in hearing notes. The tenants sought leave to internally appeal under s 80(2)(b) but did not raise any question of law; therefore leave required. Clause 12 Schedule 4 requires showing the appellant 'may have suffered a substantial miscarriage of justice' because the decision was unfair, against the weight of evidence, or there is significant new evidence. The tenants relied on phone logs and asserted contact and willingness to pay. The Appeal Panel found the record disclosed arrears and necessary findings, the phone logs were not fresh or persuasive, and there was no denial of procedural fairness. Leave was refused, the appeal dismissed, and the stay of the original orders lifted.
1,627 case citations
Before: Peatman AC
Before: Targett C
Before: Macken AC
Before: Black J
Before: Black J
Before: Nixon J
Before: Fagan J
Before: Ward P at [1]Adamson JA at [2]Weinstein J at [3]
Before: Jones JJ
The High Court held that the jury could consider AB's distress alongside what she told her mother, as possible circumstantial support for the allegation that the offending occurred. The possibility that AB was upset for another reason did not make the evidence irrelevant. The trial judge left causation and weight to the jury, and did not direct them to treat the evidence as independent corroboration. The prosecutor's use of “independent evidence” did not change that conclusion in context. The convictions were restored, while the sentence appeal application was returned to the Victorian Court of Appeal.
Before: Gleeson JJ
The High Court set aside a Northern Territory Court of Appeal order that had dismissed a tenants' judicial review proceeding. The Court of Appeal had earlier declined to accept the referral that would have given it jurisdiction to determine the relevant declaration. Because it had not accepted the referral, it lacked jurisdiction to determine the relief. The High Court did not decide whether the minister's rent determination was valid. The proceeding remained to be dealt with by the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory unless otherwise resolved.
Before: Jones JJ
The High Court dismissed Farshchi’s appeal. It held that Victoria’s permission to tell jurors that a reasonable doubt is not an “unrealistic possibility” does not, by itself, lower the prosecution’s obligation to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt. The expression must be read as part of the whole explanation and as a negative clarification, not as a new legal test. The Victorian provision therefore applied to this Commonwealth trial through s 68 of the Judiciary Act. The plurality did not decide the separate constitutional argument under s 80. Edelman and Steward JJ gave separate reasons addressing that issue and concluded the explanation was compatible with the constitutional standard they identified.
Before: Jagot JJ
The plaintiffs applied too late to challenge earlier family-law orders. The High Court considered their explanation for delay, the procedural history, the consent final orders, and the proposed grounds of challenge. It found no exceptional basis to extend time and no reasonably arguable ground for certiorari. Because the other requested relief depended on certiorari, it dismissed both the writ and stay applications with costs.
Before: Taylor J, Chin J
Before: Derrington J
Before: Bennett J
Before: Feutrill J
Before: Mr J, Meagher J
Before: Anderson J
Before: Mr J
Before: Mr P
Before: Mr J, Leish JA, Orr JA