Baker v CofA, Burk v CofA

These proceedings concerned applications for special leave to appeal to the High Court of Australia. The applicants, Baker and Burk, sought special leave to appeal from decisions of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. The underlying dispute involved allegations of fraud and conspiracy in relation to a property development.

The central legal issue before Hayne J was whether the applicants had demonstrated an arguable case of error in the decisions of the Court of Appeal, sufficient to warrant the grant of special leave to appeal to the High Court. This required consideration of whether the Court of Appeal had erred in its application of the law to the facts, or whether there were other compelling reasons of public importance or general application that justified the High Court's intervention.

Hayne J considered the grounds of appeal advanced by the applicants, which primarily concerned the sufficiency of evidence to establish fraud and conspiracy, and the proper application of principles relating to the admissibility of evidence. His Honour found that the applicants had not established an arguable case of error in the Court of Appeal's reasoning, nor had they demonstrated any broader question of law that warranted the High Court's attention. The applications for special leave to appeal were therefore dismissed.