GEOFFREY WALTER EDELSTEN v HIS HONOUR JUDGE WARD [1988] NSWCA 42

GEOFFREY WALTER EDELSTEN v HIS HONOUR JUDGE WARD SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COURT OF APPEAL

SAMUELS, MAHONEY and CLARKE JJA 8, 9 December 1988, 9 December 1988

[1988] NSWCA 42

Medical practitioner — claim for interlocutory relief — stay of execution of orders by Medical Disciplinary Tribunal — no question of principle.

ORDERS The application for interlocutory relief is dismissed; paragraph 2 of the summons is dismissed; the claimant is to pay the costs of these proceedings.

Samuels JA This is a matter which has had a long history. On 1 October 1987 the Medical Board, established under the Medical Practitioners Amendment Act 1987, which had only just then come into force, appointed two doctors and a lay person to constitute a Medical Tribunal to hear an inquiry into various complaints of professional misconduct against Dr Geoffrey Edelsten. That inquiry proceeded for some considerable time and with a differently constituted Tribunal, for reasons to which I will come presently. Ultimately the Tribunal made findings adverse to Dr Edelsten.

He then brought an appeal on matters of law to this Court, as the Amendment Act now permits. That appeal operated as a stay of any further proceedings before the Tribunal. This Court dismissed Dr Edelsten's appeal and remitted the matter to the Tribunal so that the Tribunal could determine what orders should be made. The Tribunal ordered in due course that Dr Edelsten's name should be removed from the register of medical practitioners.

Today, this afternoon, Dr Edelsten will seek special leave to appeal to the High Court against the decision of this Court on appeal from the Tribunal. There is a stay of proceedings, that is, a stay of the Tribunal's order for deregistration, in operation until 6 pm today.

Dr Edelsten has now moved this Court seeking an order of prohibition directed to the Tribunal, the Department of Health and the New South Wales Medical Board, and orders restraining the removal of his name from the register and other interlocutory relief.