Yet Son Rosewood Furniture Pty Ltd v Ai Yan Luo [2012] NSWSC 730

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Yet Son Rosewood Furniture Pty Ltd v Ai Yan Luo [2012] NSWSC 730 Hearing dates: 11, 12, 13, 14 & 15 April 2011, written submissions closed 28 April 2011 Decision date: 02 July 2012 Before: McCallum J Decision: Verdict for the plaintiff in the sum of $3,775 Catchwords: TORTS - conversion - tax office audit identifying shortfall in the declaration of company's cash sales receipts - company alleging that shortfall represents cash appropriated by defendant whilst employed as bookkeeper for the company - circumstantial case - conversion of small sum established

EVIDENCE - representation by tax office as to shortfall in the declaration of company's cash sales receipts - where representation relevant for a non-hearsay purpose - whether use to be made of the representation should be limited under s 136 of the Evidence Act 1995 Legislation Cited: Evidence Act 1995 Cases Cited: Penfolds Wines Pty Ltd v Elliott [1946] HCA 46; (1946) 74 CLR 204 Briginshaw v Briginshaw (1938) 60 CLR 336 Category: Principal judgment Parties: Yet Son Rosewood Furniture Pty Ltd (plaintiff) Ai Yan Luo (defendant) Representation: Counsel: C Lonergan (plaintiff) T J Morahan with T J Saunders (defendant) Herman Chan & Co (plaintiff) Wang & Associates (defendant) File Number(s): 2009/291449 Publication restriction: None

Judgment 1Yet Son Rosewood Furniture Pty Ltd carries on business as a retailer of imported rosewood furniture. In July 2009, the Australian Taxation Office completed an audit of the company which identified a shortfall in the declaration of cash sales receipts in the order of $480,000 for the two financial years ending 30 June 2006 and 30 June 2007. Yet Son claims that the explanation for the undeclared income is that the cash in question was wrongfully appropriated from its sales revenue by its former bookkeeper, Ms Ai Yan Luo (also known as Kelly Luo). By these proceedings, Yet Son seeks to recover those amounts from Ms Luo.