Meng v Wang (No 2) [2023] NSWSC 260

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Meng v Wang (No 2) [2023] NSWSC 260 Hearing dates: 16 March 2023 Date of orders: 16 March 2023 Decision date: 16 March 2023 Jurisdiction: Equity Before: Parker J Decision: See [35] Catchwords: CONTRACTS – performance – time of performance – performance within reasonable time – where argued that reasonable time extended by later events and circumstances – where reasonable time expired and extension relevant only to prejudgment interest Cases Cited: Meng v Wang [2022] NSWSC 833 Category: Principal judgment Parties: Zihui Meng (Plaintiff) Binbin Wang (Defendant) Representation: Counsel: J Mee (Plaintiff) N Kabilafkas (Defendant)

Solicitor: Jurisbridge Legal (Plaintiff) Juris Cor Legal (Defendant) File Number(s): 2020/213480 Publication restriction: Nil

JUDGMENT- Ex Tempore

Revised from transcript; issued 24 March 2023 1. This is the second substantive hearing in these proceedings. In May last year, I made orders dismissing the plaintiff's claim for specific performance. I delivered reasons for those orders in June: Meng v Wang [2022] NSWSC 833. The background to the proceedings is set out in my earlier judgment, [1] paragraphs of which will be referred to in this judgment by using "J1". 2. Having failed in her claim for specific performance of the share sale agreement, [2] the plaintiff, Ms Meng, now seeks judgment for debt. The claimed sum is $378,000. The defendant, Ms Wang, does not now dispute that Ms Meng is entitled to judgment in this amount. 3. Two questions have been raised. The first is when pre-judgment interest should run from. That depends upon when the debt became due. I found in my earlier judgment, and it is not disputed for the purposes of these proceedings, that the time for purchase under the share sale agreement was a reasonable time after the agreement was entered into in October 2019 (see J1 at [15]). Counsel for Ms Meng invites me to award prejudgment interest from a date 12 months after that date, namely October 2020. Counsel for Ms Wang contends that a reasonable time did not expire until last year, and apparently the second half of last year. 4. The second question in the case is whether Ms Wang should succeed in a counter-claim for $44,000 for an alleged breach of the share sale agreement.