Styles v Knox [2024] NSWSC 1331

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Styles v Knox [2024] NSWSC 1331 Hearing dates: 19 September 2024 Date of orders: 22 October 2024 Decision date: 22 October 2024 Jurisdiction: Common Law Before: Schmidt AJ Decision: (1) Leave to appeal is refused. (2) Unless the parties approach to be heard within 7 days with short written submissions, Ms Styles is to bear Mr Knox's costs of this application for leave to appeal, as agreed or assessed. Catchwords: APPEALS — jurisdiction of appellate court — Supreme Court — whether refusal of a recusal application in the Local Court can be appealed to the Supreme Court — leave required — whether leave to appeal ought be granted — where claim is for small amount — where plaintiff has already had opportunity to raise bias on earlier appeal — leave refused COURTS AND JUDGES — bias — application for recusal — recusal refused — application for leave to appeal from Magistrate's decision not to recuse himself — where Magistrate had decided earlier proceedings between plaintiff and other parties — where plaintiff was unsuccessful in earlier proceedings — whether Magistrate displayed favouritism towards the legal representative of the defendants in earlier proceedings — whether fair-minded observer might reasonably apprehend bias Legislation Cited: Dividing Fences Act 1991 (NSW), ss 4, 11, 14 Local Court Act 2007 (NSW), ss 38, 39, 40, 45, 64 Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW), r 10.1 Cases Cited: Cheng v Motor Yacht Sales Australia Pty Ltd t/as the Boutique Boat Company (2022) 108 NSWLR 342; [2022] NSWCA 118 Ebner v Official Trustee in Bankruptcy (2000) 205 CLR 337; [2000] HCA 63 Johnson v Johnson (2000) 201 CLR 488; [2000] HCA 48 Lee v Chae-Sang Cha [2008] NSWCA 13 Rose v Tunstall [2018] NSWCA 241 Styles v Rowley [2023] NSWSC 1053 Category: Principal judgment Parties: Lynette Styles (Plaintiff) Geoffrey Knox (First Defendant) Local Court of New South Wales (Second Defendant) Representation: Counsel: Plaintiff (self-represented) First Defendant (self-represented) Submitting appearance (Second Defendant)