St George Bank v Hammer (No 2) [2015] NSWSC 953

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: St George Bank v Hammer (No 2) [2015] NSWSC 953 Hearing dates: 15 July 2015 Date of orders: 17 July 2015 Decision date: 17 July 2015 Jurisdiction: Common Law Before: Campbell J Decision: The defendant's notice of motion filed on 13th March 2015 (as amended on 1st May 2015) seeking summary dismissal of the proceedings is dismissed; The defendant's notice of motion, filed on 17th April 2015, to transfer the proceedings to the Federal Court of Australia is dismissed; Under r 14.28 Uniform Civil Procedure Rules, the Amended Defence dated 6th July 2015, filed on 8th July 2015 (and, to the extent necessary, all former editions of the defence) are struck out; No further defence is to be filed in the registry without the prior leave of a judge of this court obtained by motion on notice; The defendant is to pay the plaintiff's costs of each of these applications including the costs thrown away by reason of their adjournment on 23rd May 2015. Catchwords: PROCEDURE – civil – possession of security by bank – borrower in Hawaii – interlocutory issues – application to strike out defence by bank – borrower's application for summary dismissal

PROCEDURE – civil – jurisdiction – application to transfer proceedings – lack of federal jurisdiction Legislation Cited: Bills of Exchange Act 1909 (NSW); Contracts Review Act 1980 (NSW); Crimes Act 1914 (Cth); Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth); Financial Sector (Business Transfer and Group Restructure) Act 1999 (Cth); Judiciary Act 1903 (Cth); Jurisdiction of Courts (Cross-Vesting) Act 1987 (Cth) Real Property Act 1900 (NSW) Cases Cited: Elkofairi v Perpetual Trustee Co Ltd [2002] NSWCA 413; 2003 11 BRP 20,841; General Steel Industries Inc v Commissioner for Railways (NSW) [1964] HCA 69; 112 CLR 125; Horrobin v Australia & New Zealand Banking Group (1996) 40 NSWLR 89; Kowalczuk v Accom Finance Pty Ltd [2008] NSWCA 343; 77 NSWLR 205; O'Brien v Bank of Western Australia Limited [2013] NSWCA 71; 16 BPR 31; Perpetual Trustee Company Ltd v Khoshaba [2006] NSWCA 41; 14 BPR 26,639 Category: Procedural and other rulings Parties: St George Bank – A Division of Westpac Banking Corporation (Plaintiff) Michael Jon Hammer(Defendant) Representation: Counsel: L Gor (Plaintiff) Mark Pytellek (by leave)