Macquarie Bank Limited v. Bell & Anor. [1999] NSWSC 957

New South Wales Supreme Court CITATION : Macquarie Bank Limited v. Bell & Anor. [1999] NSWSC 957 CURRENT JURISDICTION : Equity Division FILE NUMBER(S) : No. 2106 of 1999 HEARING DATE(S) : 25th August 1999 JUDGMENT DATE : 22 September 1999

Macquarie Bank Limited (Plaintiff) PARTIES : Michael Charles Bell (First Plaintiff) Charles Joseph Berg (Second Plaintiff) JUDGMENT OF : Hodgson CJinEq at 1

COUNSEL : Mr. B.W. Collins QC with Mr. A. Bell for Plaintiff Mr. P. Hall QC with Mr. R. Dalgleish for Defendants SOLICITORS : Abbott Tout, Sydney for Plaintiff Hickson Wisewoulds, Sydney for Defendants CATCHWORDS : COURTS - JURISDICTION - CROSS-VESTING; ESTOPPEL - ISSUE ESTOPPEL. Proceedings were brought in the Industrial Commission and in the Federal Court, both based on the acceptance of employment in reliance on misleading representations. After significant procedural steps in the Commission, the defendant applied to transfer the IRC proceedings to the Supreme Court. HELD that the specialist expertise of the IRC, determination of substantial issues by the IRC, and delay, were factors against transfer; that the question was whether these factors were outweighed by the justice and convenience of avoiding multiplicity of proceedings; that this in turn depended on the likely effect of issue estoppels; that the Federal Court proceedings were unlikely to be significantly shortened by issue estoppels arising from the IRC proceedings; and that transfer should be ordered. CASES CITED : Heath v. Hanning (1999) NSWSC 719 Blair v. CLurren (1939) 62 CLR 464 DECISION : See pages 12 and 13 of judgment