Ibrahim v All Aspect Formwork (Aust) Pty Ltd [2009] NSWSC 310

New South Wales Supreme Court

CITATION : Ibrahim v All Aspect Formwork (Aust) Pty Ltd [2009] NSWSC 310

HEARING DATE(S) : 12 March 2009 JURISDICTION : Equity Division Duty Judge List

JUDGMENT OF : Brereton J

EX TEMPORE JUDGMENT DATE : 12 March 2009

DECISION : Summons dismissed with costs

CATCHWORDS : PRIVATE INTERNATIONAL LAW – Anti-suit injunction – where proceedings pending in District Court – where proceedings brought for "precautionary injunction" in Lebanon – where precautionary injunction offers superior remedy – Whether foreign proceeding vexatious, oppressive or abusive

CATEGORY : Principal judgment

Bank of Tokyo Ltd v Karoon [1987] AC 45, [1986] 3 All ER 468, [1986] 3 WLR 414 CASES CITED : Bayer AG v Winter (No 3) (The Times 24 March 1986) CSR Ltd v Cigna Insurance Ltd (1997) 189 CLR 345 Yandil Holdings Pty Limited v Insurance Co of North America (1986) 7 NSWLR 571

Romeo Elias Ibrahim (plaintiff) PARTIES : All Aspect Formwork (Aust) Pty Ltd (first defendant) Richard Sckaff (second defendant)

FILE NUMBER(S) : SC 1637/09

COUNSEL : D K L Raphael (plaintiff) R McKeand SC (defendants)

SOLICITORS : Penhall & Co (plaintiff) Simon Diab & Associates (defendants)

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES EQUITY DIVISION DUTY JUDGE LIST

BRERETON J

Thursday 12 March 2009

1637/09 Romeo Elias Ibrahim v All Aspect Formwork (Australia) Pty Ltd & anor JUDGMENT (ex tempore) 1 HIS HONOUR: The plaintiff Romeo Elias Ibrahim is the defendant in proceedings in the District Court of New South Wales at Parramatta in which the present defendants, All Aspects Formwork (Aust) Pty Ltd, and Richard Sckaff are the plaintiffs and claim money said to be due under a contract made between Mr Sckaff and Mr Ibrahim. They first initiated proceedings for recovery of the debt in the District Court at Parramatta in 2007, but subsequently discontinued them. They brought further proceedings in 2008 and obtained default judgment, but it has since been set aside, and the proceedings remain on foot. The defence of Mr Ibrahim, as I understand it, is essentially that the contracting party was his now deregistered company, and not himself. There appears to be little if any dispute that the relevant contract was made in New South Wales and that the cause of action arose in New South Wales. 2 While those proceedings were pending in the District Court, Mr Sckaff commenced proceedings claiming the same debt in the Civil Court in Lebanon, and also commenced an application in the Executory Court in Lebanon for what is called a precautionary injunction.