› Concurrent Wrongdoers — Part IVAA Wrongs Act 1958 (Vic)
Practice and Procedure
› Joinder
› Open and Arguable Case — Threshold Requirements
Torts
› Negligence
› Pure Economic Loss — Duty of Care — Salient Features — Vulnerability
Quick Take
1A respondent seeking joinder of a proposed concurrent wrongdoer for apportionment under Part IVAA of the Wrongs Act 1958 (Vic) must plead material facts — not merely broad propositions of law — sufficient to establish an open and arguable case that the proposed party owed the applicant a duty of care, breached it, and thereby caused the claimed loss; in pure economic loss claims, this includes particularising the salient features (especially vulnerability) supporting the duty.
2Where the respondent's own expert evidence tends to support the proposition that the proposed joined party's work was not deficient, the respondent has not demonstrated an open and arguable case that the proposed party's acts or omissions caused the applicant's loss within s 24AH of the Wrongs Act 1958 (Vic).
3A proposed joined party cannot meaningfully oppose joinder by adducing contrary factual evidence where the respondent has pleaded only broad legal assertions unsupported by material factual particulars.
