Borcherdt v Scott

In *Borcherdt v Scott*, the Court of Appeal considered an application for leave to appeal from a decision of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, which had dismissed an appeal from three separate proceedings in the Local Court. The Supreme Court had treated these three Local Court proceedings as a single proceeding for the purposes of its appeal. The applicant sought leave to appeal to the Court of Appeal, raising questions about the applicability of section 101(2)(r) of the *Supreme Court Act 1970* (NSW), which governs the requirement for leave to appeal in certain circumstances.

The central legal issue before the Court of Appeal was whether leave to appeal was required under section 101(2)(r) of the *Supreme Court Act 1970* in relation to any one or more of the three Local Court proceedings. This question arose because only one of the three Local Court proceedings had a value exceeding $100,000, while the others did not. The applicant contended that the Supreme Court's treatment of the three proceedings as one for its appeal was incorrect, and that the requirement for leave to appeal should be assessed in relation to each individual Local Court proceeding.

The Court of Appeal reasoned that the requirement for leave to appeal under section 101(2)(r) of the *Supreme Court Act 1970* should be applied to each of the three Local Court proceedings individually, rather than treating them as a single proceeding. This was because the section refers to "any judgment or order of the Supreme Court in an appeal from a judgment or order of a court of summary jurisdiction" and the value of the subject matter of the appeal. Given that only one of the Local Court proceedings exceeded the monetary threshold, leave to appeal was necessary in relation to that specific proceeding.

The Court of Appeal granted leave to appeal in proceeding 2013 of 292118, which was the proceeding where the value of the subject matter exceeded $100,000. The Court also ordered that the proceedings be listed before the Registrar of the Court of Appeal for directions regarding the preparation of the appeal for hearing.