MENDONCA v SOUTH SYDNEY JUNIOR RUGBY LEAGUE CLUB LIMITED [1996] NSWCA 360

MENDONCA v SOUTH SYDNEY JUNIOR RUGBY LEAGUE CLUB LIMITED

SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES — COURT OF APPEAL

MEAGHER JA, BEAZLEY JA and GILES AJA 7 November 1996

[1996] NSWCA 360

Meagher JA. In this matter we heard an appeal some time ago and ordered there be judgment for the second plaintiff in the sum of $97,328.33 and it is agreed that interest must be paid on that amount from 23 April 1989 until date of payment. The present contest is what that rate of interest should be.

The respondent club has argued it should be the interest actually earned by the deposit of $97,328.33 paid into a State Bank of New South Wales account at Kingsford. We know what amount has been earned by the deposit of those moneys at that bank account, it is approximately the sum of $60,000. It is $40,000 less than the plaintiff would have obtained under s 94 of the Supreme Court Act.

In my view there is no reason why the Supreme Court Act provisions should not apply rather than the interest rate actually earned by the bank deposit, therefore the order of the Court is that interest at the appropriate ratefrom 23

April 1989 to date of payment should be that provided by the Supreme Court Act. Beazley JA. I agree.

Giles AJA. I agree also.

COLES: Would the Court not entertain a qualification of that in the light that the order made Justice Sully which in effect locked the money in at least from 1993, an order for which no appeal was brought?

RAYMENT: We couldn't have got that order. As far as I can work it out there'd be no jurisdiction to make that order — it must have been volunteered. We couldn't have sought that order because you can't get the security for the defendant if you've just lost.

GILES AJA: For my part in the absence of some explanation I regard that as just a defacto flow on of what the club originally did and really not bearing against the order which the presiding Judge has indicated.