ND v Coroner's Court of the ACT

The Court of Appeal dismissed an application for interlocutory relief to preserve a deceased child's body pending appeal from dismissal of judicial review proceedings against the Coroner. Mossop J held that a stay of the primary judge's dismissal orders would have no operative effect, and that interlocutory orders directed only to the Coroner would be ineffective because the body was in the custody of a funeral home engaged by the mother — neither of whom were parties to the proceedings. On the merits, the Court found that most grounds of appeal lacked sufficient prospects of success, as the Coroners Act 1997 (ACT) does not mandate internal dissection in every post-mortem, and the broad evaluative discretion reposed in the Coroner under ss 20(1) and 23 made prerogative relief difficult to obtain. The Court left unresolved whether dismissal of a judicial review application under r 3566 is interlocutory (requiring leave to appeal) or final.