Where a consent order alleged to have been breached in contempt proceedings is ambiguous on its face and the available extrinsic evidence is inadequate to resolve the ambiguity, a no case submission will be upheld because the criminal standard of proof cannot be met. The position in the Northern Territory on whether a party must be put to election on a no case submission in civil proceedings is that the trial judge has a discretion. The question whether extrinsic evidence of the factual matrix is admissible to construe ambiguous consent orders in contempt proceedings was left open by the majority.
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