CIVIL PROCEDURE — Default judgment — Setting aside — Bona fide defence on merits — No issue of principle
Quick Take
1Where a proposed defence depends on the terms of an oral agreement, the applicant seeking to set aside default judgment should ordinarily adduce direct, probative evidence from a party to the conversation of what was said; an affidavit verifying a prolix and internally inconsistent pleading carries no weight.
2Internally inconsistent defences — simultaneously denying the existence of any agreement and asserting a different agreement — undermine the bona fides of the proposed defence and may be fatal to an application to set aside default judgment.
3Repeated non-compliance with court-ordered deadlines for filing defences, even after express judicial warnings that the opportunity was the 'last chance', weighs heavily against the grant of further indulgences.
