Telstra Corporation Ltd v First Netcom Ltd [1997] FCA 1616

moe JUDGMENT No. LEL.6..1 LF22

IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA )

NEW SOUTH WALES DISTRICT REGISTRY ) No.NG 483 of 1997 GENERAL DIVISION )

; : Between: TELSTRA CORPORATION f ' LIMITED f FEDERAL COURT Applicant

OF AUSTRALIA 21 SEP 2001

And: FIRST NETCOM PTY

Respondent REASONS FOR JUDGMENT EINFELD J SYDNEY 31 OCTOBER 1997

I am satisfied that there is power in the Court to order

security in respect of the cross-claim and that this is an | appropriate case for ordering it. I take into account that | there would be some duplication of effort if this case was prepared completely independently of other litigation before the Court involving some of Telstra's pricing and billing procedures, and that therefore there will be some saving of costs that would otherwise be incurred. Nonetheless even in the cases which I am hearing, there are clear differences between this litigation and the others such that the preparation of one will certainly not obviate the need for full and detailed

preparation of the other or others.

Telstra has in most of these cases instructed different lawyers

and different legal teams. At first I felt that that action was

and would be productive of considerable inconvenience but having regard to the development of litigation, it is quite understandable that there would have to be different legal teams, amongst other reasons because the various cases raise different issues, the other parties are themselves not represented by the same legal teams, and the cases are all complex. Whatever common ground there is between the cases, it is clear that there will also be quite a lot of separate ground, and it is impossible on an interlocutory application to decide to what extent there will be common ground and to what extent there will be separate issues. It would not be a sensible use of the Court's time to try to make detailed comparisons in this