British American Tobacco Australia Services Ltd v Laurie & Ors [2009] NSWCA 414

Appeal Outcome: Special leave granted by the High Court, 28 May 2010 S10/2010 [2010] HCATrans 132

New South Wales Court of Appeal

CITATION: British American Tobacco Australia Services Ltd v Laurie & Ors [2009] NSWCA 414

HEARING DATE(S): 25 November 2009

JUDGMENT DATE: 17 December 2009

JUDGMENT OF: Allsop P at 1; Tobias JA at 15; Basten JA at 121

DECISION: Each of the summons for leave to appeal and the s 69 summons filed on 24 June 2009 be dismissed with costs

CATCHWORDS: PROCEDURE – Courts and judges generally – Judges – Disqualification for interest or bias – Apprehended bias by way of prejudgment – Challenge to judge's refusal to recuse himself – Where judge previously made credit and factual findings adverse to a party in an interlocutory judgment in separate proceedings – Whether findings in the interlocutory judgment expressed in such terms of finality that might give the impression to the reasonable fair-minded observer that the judge might not bring an impartial and unprejudiced mind to the issues in the proceedings – Material to which fair minded lay-observer may be assumed to have regard – Whether erroneous refusal of a judge of the Dust Diseases Tribunal to disqualify himself involves a decision in point of law so to ground an appeal under s 32(1) of the Dust Diseases Tribunal Act 1989 – Whether judge should have declined to disqualify himself on the ground of necessity

Civil Procedure Act 2005 Dust Diseases Tribunal Act 1989 LEGISLATION CITED: Evidence Act 1995 Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1946 Supreme Court Act 1970

CATEGORY: Principal judgment

Briginshaw v Briginshaw [1938] HCA 34; (1938) 60 CLR 336 Caperton v AT Massey Coal Co Inc 173 L.Ed.2d 1208 (2009) Concrete Pty Ltd v Parramatta Design & Developments Pty Ltd [2006] HCA 55; (2006) 229 CLR 577 Ebner v Official Trustee in Bankruptcy [2000] HCA 63; (2000) 205 CLR 337 Johnson v Johnson [2000] HCA 48; (2000) 201 CLR 488 Kwan v Kang [2003] NSWSC 698 Kwan v Kang [2003] NSWCA 336 Lee v Cha [2008] NSWCA 13 Livesey v New South Wales Bar Association [1983] HCA 17; (1983) 151 CLR 288 CASES CITED: McGovern v Ku-ring-gai Council [2008] NSWCA 209; (2008) 72 NSWLR 504 Minister Administering the Crown Lands Act v New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council [2009] NSWCA 352 Orleans Investments Pty Ltd v Mindshare Communications Ltd [2009] NSWCA 40; (2009) 254 ALR 81 Re JRL; Ex parte CJL [1986] HCA 39; (1986) 161 CLR 342 Re Mowbray; Brambles Australia Ltd v British American Tobacco Australia Services Ltd [2006] NSWDDT 15; (2006) 3 DDCR 580 Refjek v McElroy [1965] HCA 46; (1965) 112 CLR 517 Seltsam Pty Limited v Ghaleb [2005] NSWCA 208; (2005) 3 DDCR 1 Southern Equities Corporation Limited (in liq) v Bond [2000] SASC 450; (2000) 78 SASR 339 Webb v The Queen [1994] HCA 30; (1994) 181 CLR 41