Balzola v Passas & Anor [2018] NSWSC 1948

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Balzola v Passas & Anor [2018] NSWSC 1948 Hearing dates: 10 December 2018 Date of orders: 10 December 2018 Decision date: 10 December 2018 Jurisdiction: Common Law Before: Campbell J Decision: (1) Adjourn the hearing of the action on the ground of conflict of interest on the part of counsel for the defendants. (2) List the matter before the Common Law case management Registrar at 9:00am on 11 December 2018 to fix a fresh hearing date with an estimate of one week. (3) The defendants are to serve witness statements intended to stand as witnesses' evidence‑in‑chief by 1 February 2019. (4) Plaintiff to serve witness statements intended to stand as the witnesses' evidence‑in‑chief by 15 February 2019. (5) If any witness refuses to provide a signed statement, a précis of their expected evidence signed by the solicitor for the party is to be provided in accordance with the times fixed by this timetable. (6) Leave to the plaintiff to serve a notice to produce on the defendants. (7) List the matter for directions before me on Monday, 18 February 2019 at 9:30am. (8) The defendants pay the plaintiff's costs thrown away by reason of the adjournment. Catchwords: DEFAMATION – slander

CIVIL PROCEDURE – hearings – adjournment – relevant factors – delay – professional commitments – professional difficulty – conflict of interest – competing interests of defendants – preparation unsatisfactory – adjournment granted

COSTS – delay – whether costs should be thrown away forthwith – general rule – overriding purpose – relevance of evidence – confluence of circumstances justifies extraordinary order Legislation Cited: Civil Procedure Act 2005 (NSW) Cases Cited: Nil Texts Cited: Nil Category: Procedural and other rulings Parties: Robert Balzola (Plaintiff) Julie Passas (First Defendant) Anthony Raciti (Second Defendant) Representation: Counsel: R Rasmussen (Plaintiff) N Kirby (Defendant)