Timbercorp Finance Pty Ltd v Collins and Tomes

[2016] VSCA 128

Victorian Court of Appeal

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Practice and Procedure
2. › Group proceedings
3. › Part 4A Supreme Court Act 1986 (Vic)
4. › Scope of group proceeding
5. › Whether group members entitled to raise questions not common to group proceeding
6. › Whether failure to opt out precludes raising individual claims in subsequent proceedings
7. › Supreme Court Act 1986 (Vic), ss 33C, 33Q, 33ZB
1. Practice and Procedure
2. › Estoppel
3. › Anshun estoppel
4. › Scope of principle
5. › Whether Anshun estoppel may preclude group members who were neither parties nor privies of a party
6. › Whether unreasonable not to have raised individual claims in group proceeding
7. › Relevant factors including content of opt out notice
8. › Port of Melbourne Authority v Anshun Pty Ltd (1981) 147 CLR 589
1. Practice and Procedure
2. › Estoppel
3. › Anshun estoppel
4. › Privity of interest
5. › Whether group members are privies of plaintiff in group proceeding
6. › Whether plaintiff would be precluded from raising individual claims of group members
1. Practice and Procedure
2. › Abuse of process
3. › Group proceedings
4. › Whether raising individual claims and defences by group members in subsequent proceedings is unjustifiably oppressive or brings administration of justice into disrepute

Quick Take

Practitioners acting for defendants in group proceedings should note that group members who do not opt out are not automatically precluded from raising individual claims and defences in subsequent proceedings; Anshun estoppel requires a merits-based assessment of all circumstances including the content of opt out notices.