AUCKLAND AGRICULTURAL PASTORAL AND INDUSTRIAL SHOWS BOARD v SHARP [1998] NSWCA 22

AUCKLAND AGRICULTURAL PASTORAL & INDUSTRIAL SHOWS BOARD v SHARP

SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES — COURT OF APPEAL

MEAGHER, SHELLER and BEAZLEY JJA 4 August 1998 [1998] NSWCA 22

LEAVE TO APPEAL — contract — tort — conflict of laws.

Sheller JA. Ex tempore

This is a summons for leave to appeal against a decision of Barr J made on 16 March 1998 vacating the hearing dates of a notice of motion which had been filed by the claimant, Auckland Agricultural Pastoral & Industrial Shows Board, in proceedings brought by the plaintiff and one of the opponents, Beverley Sharp, against the defendant, Thompson Australian Holdings Pty Limited, the other opponent. The claimant was the cross-defendant in a cross-claim brought by the defendant.

The material before the Court on this summons consists of the summons itself, which was filed on 6 April 1998, a statement under Pt 51 r 4B (3) which appears to have been filed in June 1998, and an affidavit by Mark Robert Debenham of 10 June 1998, to which are annexed an affidavit by the plaintiff and a one page transcript of 16 March 1998 of the hearing before Barr J. In that transcript are set out the reasons for the decision against which it is now sought to appeal.

None of these documents indicates with any clarity the nature of the proceedings. However, we have been told from the bar table that the plaintiff sued in respect of injuries which she suffered in 1991 in New Zealand at a show or craft exhibition in Auckland. Apparently, she was party to a contract with the defendant whereunder she was entitled to display wares at the exhibition in a stall for which she was to pay some rent. She was also to provide services to the defendant as a general workshop presenter and demonstrator. Apparently, while engaged in these activities she was injured in some way which has not been described.