Pacific Star Communications Pty Ltd v Telstra Corporations Ltd [1997] FCA 1611

JUDGMENT No. LLL Lt KEEP

IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA )

NEW SOUTH WALES DISTRICT REGISTRY ) No. NG 498 of 1997 GENERAL DIVISION ) Between: PACIFIC STAR COMMUNICATIONS PTY LIMITED & ORS

Applicant

And: TELSTRA CORPORATION

LIMITED Respondent REASONS FOR JUDGMENT EINFELD J SYDNEY 30 JUNE 1997

The matter before the Court this morning is whether an application by the applicants for an interlocutory injunction against Telstra restraining the cutting off of its customer services from a date in July and the sending of a preliminary letter before the cutting off to advise the customers that it is about to take place should be transferred to the Supreme Court of Queensland or the Queensland Registry of the Federal

Court.

The reason for the application brought by Telstra is that there are already proceedings on foot in the Queensland Supreme Court in which Telstra is suing the applicant companies for a debt for unpaid telephone calls. I am

informed and have no reason not to believe that it is the

intention of the applicants who are the defendants in those

proceedings to cross-claim against Telstra in those proceedings raising a number of matters including matters

under Part IV of the Trade Practices Act.

In.this respect these proceedings would be the same or similar to proceedings commenced in the New South Wales Supreme Court by Telstra against another company providing the same or similar services to the applicants. That case was transferred to this Court upon the cross-claim being filed on the grounds that only this Court has jurisdiction to deal with Part IV

claims.

In those circumstances it seems very likely that the Queensland Supreme Court proceedings will at some stage be transferred to the Federal Court, whether in the Queensland

Registry or in the New South Wales Registry.

The argument for the matter to remain in Queensland appears to be that the business of the first and second applicants in particular is substantially Queensland-based. However, the evidence establishes that the first applicant is in the process of going out of business altogether and transferring its business elsewhere. There is also evidence in the affidavits that in any case Telstra's office in Brisbane has now referred the handling of the dispute to the company's