Zhang v ROC Services (NSW) Pty Ltd; National Transport Insurance by its manager NTI Ltd v Zhang [2016] NSWCA 370

Court of Appeal Supreme Court New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: Zhang v ROC Services (NSW) Pty Ltd; National Transport Insurance by its manager NTI Ltd v Zhang [2016] NSWCA 370 Hearing dates: 20, 21 October 2016 Decision date: 22 December 2016 Before: Macfarlan JA at [1]; Leeming JA at [10]; Sackville AJA at [253] Decision: In proceeding 2016/140032 (Mr Zhang's appeal against ROC): 1. Appeal dismissed. 2. Mr Zhang to pay ROC's costs of the appeal as agreed or assessed.

In proceeding 2016/134168 (NTI's application for leave to appeal): 1. Grant leave in respect of grounds 1-3 of the draft notice of appeal, and otherwise refuse leave. 2. Direct NTI to file and serve a notice of appeal, limited to grounds 1-3, within 28 days. 3. Grant liberty to apply to a single Judge of Appeal, on three days' notice, in the event that any party wishes to apply as to the parties joined by the notice of appeal. 4. Appeal dismissed. 5. NTI to pay the costs of each of Mr Zhang and Mr Tabuso as agreed or assessed. 6. No order as to the costs of Mr Popovic and Calabro, with the intent that they bear their own costs. Catchwords: APPEALS – interlocutory decision – whether party can wait for final judgment and appeal as of right – consequences of one defendant seeking leave to appeal and another not – whether other defendant estopped

CONTRACTS – contract of insurance – construction – complex and lengthy clause – regard to text, context and purpose – importance of grammatical structure – significance of punctuation – reading contract as a whole – regard to legislative context – whether proposed construction leaves other clauses with work to do