Gao v Wang [2022] NSWDC 121

District Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Gao v Wang [2022] NSWDC 121 Hearing dates: 21 April 2022 Date of orders: 22 April 2022 Decision date: 22 April 2022 Jurisdiction: Civil Before: Gibson DCJ Decision: Order: (1) Summons dismissed. (2) The plaintiff to pay the defendant's costs of the summons and of these proceedings on an indemnity basis. Catchwords: APPEAL - appeal from decision of Assessor in the Small Claims Division of the Local Court pursuant to s 39(2) Local Court Act 2007(NSW) - whether lack of procedural fairness - appeal dismissed with costs on an indemnity basis Legislation Cited: Civil Procedure Act 2005 (NSW) s 98 Local Court Act 2007 (NSW) ss 35 and 39 Cases Cited: Britt v Parcell [2021] NSWDC 464 Duraisamy v Sydney Trains [2019] NSWCA 269 Isabella Shop Fitout & Design Pty Ltd v Tan Republic Pty Ltd [2014] NSWCA 192 Kioa v West (1985) 159 CLR 550 Category: Principal judgment Parties: Plaintiff: Mr Ming Gao (Self-represented) Defendant: Mr Chang Wang Representation: Solicitors: Defendant: Law Partners File Number(s): 2021/00280321 Decision under appeal Court or tribunal: Local Court of New South Wales Jurisdiction: Civil Date of Decision: 2 September 2021 Before: Assessor E Keir File Number(s): 2020/00350703

Judgment 1. This is an appeal brought pursuant to s 39(2) of the Local Court Act 2007 (NSW) ("the Act"). The Summons sets out that the applicant ("the plaintiff"), who was also the plaintiff in the Local Court, appeals from a decision of Assessor Keir dated 2 September 2021, on the following grounds: "Assessor identified a wrong issue, procedural fairness has been denied as relevant material has been ignored. ASIC extract shows defendant Chang Wang was not the director of Blue Ocean [the company which was the other defendant in the local Court, against which no orders were sought by the plaintiff at the time of the hearing], instead, Fan Xie was the director appointed (appointment date: 1 March 2017, cease date: 5 June 2017). The rebate letter was signed by Chang Wang onto 4 April 2017 when $5000 deposit was made, at that time, Chang Wang had no capacity to sign as director of Blue Ocean, which means he is personally liable of [sic] signing the Rebate Letter."