EXPO ALUMINIUM (NSW) PTY LIMITED v PATEMAN PTY LIMITED (NO 2) [1991] NSWCA 92

EXPO ALUMINIUM (NSW) PTY LIMITED v PATEMAN PTY LIMITED (NO 2)

SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COURT OF APPEAL KIRBY P, SAMUELS and MEAGHER JJA

4 December 1990, 29 April 1991

[1991] NSWCA 92

JUDGMENT and ORDERS — correction — slip rule — correction where orders not taken out — mistake shown — orders corrected.

PRACTICE and PROCEDURE — Court of Appeal — orders correction of — orders never taken out — application to correct — alleged 'slip' by Court in mathematical calculation of judgment — held: (1) The error was deliberate and not a case apt for the application of the slip rule which is confined to inadvertent mistakes; (2) Two mistakes had occurred which because the orders of the Court had not been taken out could and should be corrected in the Court's final orders; (3) Final orders made accordingly.

Kirby P I agree with Meagher JA. Samuels JA I agree with Meagher JA.

Meagher JA In this matter, which was heard on 23 May 1990, judgment was given on 13 June 1990. In that judgment this Court ordered (inter alia) that W R Pateman Pty Limited pay to Expo Aluminium (NSW) Pty Limited the sum of $5,000. We also ordered that W R Pateman Pty Limited pay one-half of Expo's costs of the trial. For some reason, the Court's order was never taken out. By a Notice of Motion filed on 4 July 1990, an application to vary our orders was argued on 4 December 1990. The claimant was Pateman Pty Limited. Mr Hunt of Counsel, who appeared for the claimant, argued that the order against his client should have been for $2,000 not $5,000. He suggested that it involved merely an application of the "slip rule".

One thing is clear, and that is that the application does not involve the "slip tule". The "slip rule" governs inadvertent mistakes. The mistake suggested in the present case was, as the President pointed out in argument, the result of a deliberate decision. Nonetheless, if it be a mistake, it ought to be corrected. And in my opinion it was a mistake.