PARTRIDGE v NEW SOUTH WALES INSURANCE MINISTERIAL CORPORATION [1993] NSWCA 206

PARTRIDGE v NEW SOUTH WALES INSURANCE MINISTERIAL CORPORATION

SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COURT OF APPEAL

KIRBY P 13 December 1993, 13 December 1993

[1993] NSWCA 206

PRACTICE and PROCEDURE — Court of Appeal — filing fees — delay in payment of — application for extension of time for filing appeal — stake on appeal worth approximately $30,000 — filing fee of $1550 required — point in issue allegedly to be authoritatively determined in other litigation — application for leave to postpone filing of appeal until three months after determination of other litigation — application opposed — held: (refusing the application): The application should be refused because (a) It would commit the rights and duties of the opponent to uncertainty over an indefinite period; (b) The claimant had recovered a judgment of more than $2 million and was not bereft of funds for the payment of the filing fee in this case; and (c) Doubt existed as to whether the discretion sought could properly be exercised in such a case.

DELEGATED LEGISLATION — filing fees for appeals — filing fee of $1550 to bring appeal provided by Supreme Court Act 1970 — whether such "extremely substantial" fees represent an unlawful impediment to the exercise of the right to appeal provided Supreme Court Act 1970 — observations by Kirby P (without deciding the point) on the validity of the filing fees fixed by the Executive.

Supreme Court Rules Pt51 R5(2). ORDERS Motion dismissed with costs.

Kirby P The common law does not provide a right of appeal. Rights of appeal must be found in statutory laws. Relevantly, rights of appeal from decisions of judges of the Supreme Court to this Court are found in the Supreme Court Act 1970. Such rights are thus provided by Parliament.

There was a time when filing fees for the bringing of appeals to this Court were modest. The Executive Government, in its wisdom, has now provided for filing fees which are extremely substantial. The filing of an appeal to this Court, from a decision of a judge of a Division of the Supreme Court, requires that the appellant deposit, in the normal case, the sum of $1550 as the filing fee.