Stoker v Starr (No 2) [2012] NSWSC 227

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Stoker v Starr (No 2) [2012] NSWSC 227 Hearing dates: 1 March 2012 Decision date: 01 March 2012 Jurisdiction: Equity Division Before: Rein J Decision: Earlier judgment amount set aside and judgment for the plaintiffs in the amount of $714,255.38. Catchwords: PROCEDURE - finality of judgment amount Category: Consequential orders Parties: Lynette Mavis Stoker (first plaintiff) Annette Margaret Darragh (second plaintiff)

Clinton Henry Starr (first defendant) Sally Anne Starr (second defendant) Warren Brian White (third defendant) Representation: Counsel: D H Mitchell (plaintiffs) No appearance by the defendants Solicitors: Legal Minds (plaintiffs) No appearance by the defendants File Number(s): SC 2009/288264

ex tempore Judgment 1On 27 February 2012 I gave judgment for the plaintiffs against Mr Clinton Henry Starr, the first defendant, in an amount of $639,558.38 of which $412,190 was the principal amount and the balance was interest calculated in accordance with the Supreme Court rates. 2I accepted Mr Mitchell's submission that the case was one in which award for compound interest was appropriate but given that the plaintiffs were unable to provide any calculations of the figure for compound interest, I granted liberty to the plaintiffs to apply to increase the judgment by the amount of compound interest less the amount of interest then awarded, should they wish to do so. 3Further reflection has lead me to consider there may be a difficulty in entering an amount as judgment on a claim and leaving extant some element of that claim to be determined. I therefore had the matter re-listed. 4The plaintiffs have now provided an affidavit dated 29 February 2012 of Mr Andrew John Toomey, who is a chartered accountant, which offers a calculation of compound interest which I accept: see Exhibit F. 5Mr Mitchell has pointed to the fact that in the calculations that he provided on 27 February there was a small error in relation to a small amount of interest which had been repaid by Mr Starr of approximately $2,000. That has been rectified in the calculations of Mr Toomey and the net cumulative interest calculated by him is $302,065.38. When added to the principal of $412,190, this gives a total of $714.255.38. 6Accordingly, I set aside the judgment that was entered on 27 February 2012. There will now be judgment for the plaintiffs in the amount of $714,255.38.