Ace Insurance Limited v Limit (No 3) Limited

This matter concerned an application for leave to appeal from orders made by a judge in the Commercial List, arising from a dispute between two groups of insurers. The Court of Appeal of New South Wales was asked to consider whether to grant leave to appeal on a specific aspect of the primary judge's decision regarding liability.

The central legal issue before the Court of Appeal was whether it was appropriate to grant leave to appeal on a discrete issue of liability, while other liability issues remained unresolved at the primary level. The Court considered the potential utility of such an appeal, particularly if success for the applicant would resolve the entire controversy, but also weighed this against the fact that other liability issues would remain outstanding.

The Court reasoned that while it was possible for an appeal on the single issue to resolve the entire dispute, it was not of ultimate utility to sever one issue of liability for appeal when other significant and novel liability issues were still to be determined. The Court noted that neither party wished to bring forward all outstanding liability questions for appeal. In the absence of such willingness, the Court concluded that there was no convenience or real advantage in proceeding with an appeal on only a limited number of issues. Consequently, the application for leave to appeal was refused.