Kingston Securities Ltd v Lee [2024] NSWSC 402

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Kingston Securities Ltd v Lee [2024] NSWSC 402 Hearing dates: 15 April 2024 Date of orders: 17 April 2024 Decision date: 17 April 2024 Jurisdiction: Equity Before: Hammerschlag CJ in Eq Decision: (1) Pursuant to section 7(2)(a)(v) of the Foreign Judgments Act 1991 (Cth) the judgment of the Court entered on 16 November 2023 in favour of the plaintiff against the defendant for $10,960,277.74 set aside. (2) Plaintiff's Notice of Motion filed 31 March 2024 dismissed. Catchwords: PRIVATE INTERNATIONAL LAW – Foreign Judgments Act 1991 (Cth) s 7(2)(a)(v) – Section requires the Court to set the registration of a foreign judgment aside where the judgment debtor did not receive notice of the proceedings in sufficient time to enable him to defend the proceedings and he did not appear - Application to set aside registration of a judgment of the High Court of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Court of First Instance – Where defendant did not receive notice of the Hong Kong proceedings until after judgment was given – Where defendant did not appear in the Hong Kong Court to defend the judgment – Where defendant moved the Hong Kong Court to set aside its judgment before making the application to this Court – Whether by doing so defendant appeared (or did not not appear) within the meaning of the section – HELD defendant did not appear – Registration of the foreign judgment set aside CIVIL PROCEDURE – Application by plaintiff for monies paid by consent order into Court by defendant to be paid by the Court into the Hong Kong Court – Alternatively to be kept in Court pending determination of a proposed claim in the Court by plaintiff against defendant – HELD application refused on various grounds including that the monies were paid into Court under a consent order to abide orders of this Court, not orders of the Hong Kong Court, and defendant's entitlement to have the registered judgment set aside is not susceptible to the condition that monies stay in Court pending plaintiff's proposed proceedings Legislation Cited: Foreign Judgments Act 1991 (Cth) Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW) Cases Cited: Attorney-General (Canada) v Hallet & Carey Ltd [1952] AC 427 Bank Polska Kasa Opieki Spolka Akcyjna v Richard Zbigniew Opara & Anor [2010] QSC 93 Barclays Bank Limited v Piacun (1983) 2 Qd R 476 Corporate Affairs Commission (NSW) v Yuill (1991) 172 CLR 319 Greylag Goose Leasing 1410 Designated Activity Company v P.T. Garuda Indonesia Ltd (2023) 111 NSWLR 550 Nyunt v First Property Holdings Pte Ltd [2022] NSWCA 249 Category: Principal judgment Parties: Kingston Securities Limited (Plaintiff) Wilson Lee (Defendant) Representation: Counsel: D Pritchard SC and C Harris (Plaintiff) N Kidd SC (Defendant)