Spencer v VMD Packaging Pty Limited

[2001] NSWCA 118

NSW Court of Appeal

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Practice and Procedure
2. › Case management
3. › Running list
4. › Adjournment of hearing
5. › Refusal to grant adjournment
6. › Whether matter should have been removed from running list and adjourned
7. › Whether integrity and efficiency of list would have been prejudiced by adjournment
8. › Where party opposing adjournment would not have been prejudiced in manner incapable of remedy by costs order
9. › Where party seeking adjournment was prejudiced by refusal
10. › Where Amended Statement of Claim raised new cause of action based on s 592 of the Corporations Law
11. › Where first defendant was interstate and lost opportunity to prosecute defence
12. › Where none of the parties were ready for trial
1. Practice and Procedure
2. › Adjournment
3. › Discretionary judgment
4. › Appellate review
5. › Whether trial judge made error of principle
6. › Whether trial judge failed to consider relevant alternative course
7. › Whether result so unjust as to indicate error
1. Evidence
2. › Hearsay rule
3. › Expert reports
4. › Ex parte hearing
5. › Whether unsworn expert report admissible at ex parte hearing where no objection made
6. › Whether non-objection at ex parte hearing constitutes waiver of hearsay rule
7. › District Court Rules, Pt 28 rr 8, 9

Quick Take

Case management considerations and the integrity of a running list must give way to the need to avoid injustice where the opposing party would not be prejudiced by an adjournment in any way incapable of remedy by a costs order. A trial judge who treats the only options as striking out or hearing the matter, without considering adjournment, commits an error of principle. An unsworn expert report should not be admitted at an ex parte hearing merely because no objection was made; the hearsay rule must be observed at ex parte hearings.