The District Court held it lacked or may have lacked jurisdiction to grant compensation under s 1317H of the Corporations Act 2001 (as the District Court is not a 'Court' within s 58AA) and to grant final injunctive relief where the underlying claims (breach of fiduciary duty, equitable confidence, Barnes v Addy accessorial liability) would likely be assigned to the Equity Division rather than the Common Law Division of the Supreme Court. Applying s 144(2) of the Civil Procedure Act 2005, the Court held the transfer to the Supreme Court was mandatory once it formed the view that it lacked or may have lacked jurisdiction, regardless of whether either party applied for transfer. The question of whether the proceedings as a whole fell outside s 44(1) of the District Court Act — because some causes of action would not have been assigned to the Common Law Division — was not definitively resolved but was treated as giving rise to sufficient doubt to trigger the mandatory transfer provision.
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