Rickhuss v The Cosmetic Institute Pty Ltd (No.2) [2020] NSWSC 393

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Rickhuss v The Cosmetic Institute Pty Ltd (No.2) [2020] NSWSC 393 Hearing dates: 25 October 2019;Written submissions: 8 November 2018, 22 November 2019 and 29 November 2019 Date of orders: 09 April 2020 Decision date: 09 April 2020 Jurisdiction: Common Law Before: Garling J Decision: (1) The application of the plaintiffs to amend the 4th Further Amended Statement of Claim to include paragraph 93A is refused. (2) Plaintiffs to pay the costs of and occasioned by the amendments which constitute the 4th Further Amended Statement of Claim. (3) Plaintiff to pay the 5th defendant's costs of and relating to the unsuccessful application to amend the 4th Further Amended Statement of Claim by inclusion of paragraph 93A. (4) Counsel to bring in Short Minutes of Order to reflect the giving of further notices to Group Members, and to reflect the common questions to be determined in August 2020. (5) Otherwise, costs in the cause. (6) Stand proceedings over for further directions to 9.30am on Friday 1 May 2020. Catchwords: CONSUMER LAW – statutory guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law – ss 60 and 61 of the Australian Consumer Law - whether a failure to achieve statutory guarantees amounts to a contravention of the Australian Consumer Law – held that failure to achieve a statutory guarantee is not a contravention

CIVIL PROCEDURE – Pleadings – Amendment – whether an amendment is futile - does the amendment disclose a cause of action known to the law

CIVIL PROCEDURE – Representative proceedings – Group members – request for 'soft closure' of the class