Supreme Court New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: Perpetual Trustee Company Limited v Wu [2024] NSWSC 256 Hearing dates: 15 March 2024 Date of orders: 15 March 2024 Decision date: 15 March 2024 Jurisdiction: Common Law Before: Davies J Decision: The amount of $613,210.68 held in trust account of the Supreme Court of New South Wales be paid to the trust account of the defendant's solicitors, Lloyd Truman Sadiq, as follows: Name of Account: Lloyd Truman Sadiq Trust Account Name of Bank: Commonwealth Bank of Australia BSB: XXXXX Account No: XXXX XXXX Catchwords: JUDGMENTS AND ORDERS – monies in court – defendant mortgagor seeking payment out of residual funds from sale of defendant's property – no question of principle Legislation Cited: Nil Cases Cited: Nil Texts Cited: Nil Category: Procedural rulings Parties: Perpetual Trustee Company Limited (Plaintiff) Jing Wen Wu (Defendant) Representation: Counsel: No appearance - excused (Plaintiff) S Sadiq (Defendant) Solicitors: Dentons Australia Ltd (Plaintiff) Lloyd Truman Sadiq Solicitors (Defendant) File Number(s): 2015/56216 Publication restriction: Nil Judgment 1. These proceedings commenced in 2015 with the plaintiff seeking possession of land being a residential unit in Pitt Street Sydney. The basis for the claim for possession was default under a mortgage that the defendant had given to the plaintiff. Default judgment was obtained on 3 June 2015. For reasons that are not at all clear, a writ of execution was not issued until 29 November 2021. The writ was executed on 28 January 2022. Subsequently the plaintiff entered into a contract of sale to sell the unit on 7 May 2022. Settlement took place on the 30 June 2022. In all this time the defendant did not appear. 2. When the plaintiff had taken from the proceeds of sale what was owing to it, there was a substantial residual amount left over. Application was then made to this Court to pay that residual amount into court, and on 16 March 2023 Adams J made such an order, giving reasons for doing so. 3. Subsequently a notice of motion was filed by solicitors acting for the defendant on 22 January 2024 seeking that the amount in court be paid out to them. By the time that notice of motion came before me on 2 February 2024 those solicitors had ceased to act. A new solicitor appeared on that day from the present solicitors' firm. The solicitor indicated that it was necessary to obtain evidence establishing the identity of the defendant so that the order which was sought in the notice of motion could be made. 4. Subsequently an amended notice of motion was filed by the new solicitors which was supported by an affidavit of Salina Sadiq sworn 8 March 2023. That affidavit establishes to my satisfaction that the solicitors have properly carried out investigations to establish that the person now claiming the money is the person named as the defendant in the proceedings and, as the owner of the land, is entitled to the moneys which are now in court. 5. Accordingly, I order that the amount of $613,210.68 held in the trust account of the Court is to be paid to the trust account of the defendant's solicitors Lloyd Truman Sadiq, the details of which are contained in the short minutes of order provided to me and which I will sign and date today. ********** DISCLAIMER - Every effort has been made to comply with suppression orders or statutory provisions prohibiting publication that may apply to this judgment or decision. The onus remains on any person using material in the judgment or decision to ensure that the intended use of that material does not breach any such order or provision. Further enquiries may be directed to the Registry of the Court or Tribunal in which it was generated. Decision last updated: 15 March 2024