KLEISS v COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA [1995] NSWCA 245

KLEISS vy COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES — COURT OF APPEAL

PRIESTLEY JA 2 June 1995

[1995] NSWCA 245

Priestley JA. This is an application for an extension of time for leave to appeal. There are two aspects to it.

The first is the ordinary legal aspect.

The claimant, Mr Kleiss, was formerly a customer of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. The Bank claimed that he began to borrow in 1983 and came to owe nearly $300,000. Mr Kleiss denied the debt. The Bank brought proceedings, which came before Giles J. Mr Kleiss conducted his own case.

Before Giles J the Bank led evidence supporting its claim. The amount claimed was made up of money actually advanced to Mr Kleiss, interest and charges.

Mr Kleiss's case was that he had been in credit with the Bank by the end of 1984 (contrary to the Bank's assertion) and that from then on the Bank wrongly made debits to his accounts.

In the way in which the case was conducted before Giles J, the Bank was in effect put to proof of a great many of the items composing the sum claimed. The Bank undertook that proof and Giles J considered each component of the total bill. He heard Mr Kleiss's evidence and his arguments.

His conclusion was that the greater part of the Bank's claim was proved; he did not accept that $21,803 part of the Bank's claim had been proved. He entered judgment for $251,252, effective from 16 December 1993. He stayed execution for twenty-eight days from 23 February 1994.

In conducting his own defence against the Bank's claim for money owing, Mr Kleiss raised a number of matters, basically alleging bad faith and deliberate attempts by the Bank to injure him, which may, if they had any substance, have been the basis of cross claims against the Bank, but which were not defences against the Bank's claim.