PARGA INVESTMENTS PTY LIMITED v HOOD SAILMAKERS (AUSTRALIA) PTY LIMITED [1991] NSWCA 220

PARGA INVESTMENTS PTY LIMITED vy HOOD SAILMAKERS (AUSTRALIA) PTY LIMITED

SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COURT OF APPEAL

PRIESTLEY, CLARKE and HANDLEY JJA 27 March 1991, 27 March 1991 [1991] NSWCA 220

APPEAL FROM DISTRICT COURT — District Court Judge refuses defendant's application for adjournment of trial — judge hears case — enters judgment for plaintiff against defendant -appeal against judgment on ground that application for judgment wrongly refused — no mistake by judge in application of principle or in understanding of facts — appeal dismissed with costs.

Priestley JA This appeal raises a very narrow point.

Proceedings were commenced in the District Court in 1982 by the respondent claiming, in substance, payment for goods sold to the defendant. There is no need to go through the history of the proceedings thereafter beyond saying they were not conducted with great expedition on behalf of the plaintiff/respondent, but there seems to have been no desire at all on the part of the defendant/appellant for the matter to be brought on with anything like expedition.

Eventually, in May of 1988, a date was fixed for hearing of the proceedings, that date being well ahead and being 26 October 1988. The defence that had been filed by the defendant simply denied the material allegations in the plaintiff's statement of claim and gave no indication whether the defendant was doing any more in regard to those allegations than putting the plaintiff to proof. The defence was verified by an affidavit sworn by Gregory Clyde Walters. A cross-action was filed at the same time. Despite indications to the contrary in the long interval between the filing of the defendant's pleas and the matter coming on for hearing, when the matter eventually came on for hearing the defendant's pleadings remained as they had been filed in 1983.