Minister for Education and Early Childhood Learning v Zonnevylle [2020] NSWCA 232

Court of Appeal Supreme Court New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: Minister for Education and Early Childhood Learning v Zonnevylle [2020] NSWCA 232 Hearing dates: 26 June 2020 Decision date: 24 September 2020 Before: Macfarlan JA at [1]; Leeming JA at [2]; McCallum JA at [3] Decision: 1. Grant leave to appeal. 2. Set aside the orders of the Appeal Panel of the New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal made on 14 November 2019 and in their place order that the appeal to the Appeal Panel be dismissed. 3. Each party to bear his or her own costs of the appeal. Catchwords: ADMINISTRATIVE LAW — administrative tribunals – scope of authority of the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal to dismiss proceedings as vexatious – where respondent sought review of a decision determining his application for access to information held by a government agency – where respondent persisted in allegations of misconduct against officers of the agency after those allegations had been dismissed by the Tribunal – relevance of history of making similar allegations in other proceedings – where Tribunal's decision dismissing proceedings as vexatious overturned by Appeal Panel – whether Appeal Panel erred in regarding persistence in claims that were bad in law as being outside the scope of the collateral purpose principle – whether Appeal Panel erred in declining to have regard to previous litigation brought by the respondent Legislation Cited: Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2013 (NSW), ss 55(1), 60, 80, 83(1) Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (NSW), ss 3, 63, 80 High Court Rules 2004 (Cth) Judiciary Act 1903 (Cth), s 77RN Supreme Court Act 1970 (NSW), s 48(2) Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW), r 51.39A Vexatious Proceedings Act 2008 (NSW) Cases Cited: Aon Risk Services Australia Limited v Australian National University (2009) 239 CLR 175; [2009] HCA 27 Attorney-General v Wentworth (1988) 14 NSWLR 481 Batistatos v Roads and Traffic Authority of New South Wales (2006) 226 CLR 256; [2006] HCA 27 BDK v Department of Education and Communities [2015] NSWCATAP 129 Teoh v Hunters Hill Council (No 8) [2014] NSWCA 125 Transcript of Proceedings, Conomy v Maden [2019] HCATrans 49 Walton v Gardiner (1993) 177 CLR 378; [1993] HCA 77 Zonnevylle v Minister for Education [2019] NSWCATAD 28 Zonnevylle v Minister for Education and Early Childhood Learning [2019] NSWCATAP 274 Zonnevylle v Minister for Education and Early Childhood Learning [2019] NSWCATAD 108 Category: Principal judgment Parties: Minister for Education and Early Childhood Learning (applicant) Peter Zonnevylle (respondent) Representation: Counsel: S Chordia (applicant) Respondent self-represented