New South Wales Court of Appeal CITATION: Croker v Attorney General of New South Wales [2010] NSWCA 355 HEARING DATE(S): 10 December 2010 JUDGMENT DATE: 10 December 2010 JUDGMENT OF: Allsop ACJ at 1; McColl JA at 4 EX TEMPORE JUDGMENT DATE: 10 December 2010 DECISION: Application for leave to appeal is dismissed with costs. [Note: The Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 provide (Rule 36.11) that unless the Court otherwise orders, a judgment or order is taken to be entered when it is recorded in the Court's computerised court record system. Setting aside and variation of judgments or orders is dealt with by Rules 36.15, 36.16, 36.17 and 36.18. Parties should in particular note the time limit of fourteen days in Rule 36.16.] CATCHWORDS: APPEAL - civil - application for leave to appeal - vexatious litigant LEGISLATION CITED: Vexatious Proceedings Act 2008 (NSW), s 8(7)(b) CATEGORY: Principal judgment PARTIES: Clayton Robert Croker (Applicant) Attorney General of New South Wales (Respondent) FILE NUMBER(S): CA 2010/275605 COUNSEL: In person (Applicant) D Ward (Respondent) SOLICITORS: In person (Applicant) Crown Solicitor of New South Wales (Respondent) LOWER COURT JURISDICTION: Supreme Court - Common Law Division LOWER COURT FILE NUMBER(S): 2010/20153 LOWER COURT JUDICIAL OFFICER: Fullerton J LOWER COURT DATE OF DECISION: 22 August 2010 LOWER COURT MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: Attorney General of New South Wales v Croker [2010] NSWSC 942 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COURT OF APPEAL 2010/275605 ALLSOP ACJ McCOLL JA Friday 10 December 2010 CROKER v ATTORNEY GENERAL OF NEW SOUTH WALES Judgment 1 ALLSOP ACJ: This is an application for leave to appeal. The orders made by a judge of the Common Law Division under the Vexatious Proceedings Act 2008 (NSW) in which the learned primary judge made orders in particular pursuant to s 8(7)(b) of that Act prohibiting the applicant from instituting proceedings in New South Wales other than with leave of an appropriate court under that Act. The orders were made on 22 July 2010. Reasons were given by her Honour on 26 August 2010. The reasons are contained in, if I may respectfully say so, a careful and comprehensive judgment of 137 paragraphs in which her Honour carefully reviews the litigation history of the applicant from 1997 through to the date when her Honour was dealing with it. Her Honour was persuaded for the reasons she gave that an order should be made under the Act. 2 Mr Croker has addressed the Court today principally on the basis that proceedings should never have been brought by reason of the asserted misconduct of the Attorney General of New South Wales in bringing the proceedings and his asserted failure to comply with the model litigant rules and particular Rules of Court as to the placement of the address for service on the summons. 3 None of the matters that have been indicated today in submissions by Mr Croker throws any doubt at all on her Honour's reasons. There is no basis to think that there is any prospect of success in the appeal and, in my view, the application should be dismissed with costs. 4 McCOLL JA: I agree. 5 ALLSOP ACJ: Application for leave to appeal is dismissed with costs. ********** DISCLAIMER - Every effort has been made to comply with suppression orders or statutory provisions prohibiting publication that may apply to this judgment or decision. The onus remains on any person using material in the judgment or decision to ensure that the intended use of that material does not breach any such order or provision. Further enquiries may be directed to the Registry of the Court or Tribunal in which it was generated.