Cavar v Commonwealth of Australia as represented by and acting through the Department of Human Services

The applicant, Mr. Cavar, sought leave to appeal against a decision of the Federal Court of Australia to strike out his pleadings. The respondent was the Commonwealth of Australia, represented by the Department of Human Services. The core of the dispute concerned the applicant's attempt to file a summons which was filed out of time, leading to the striking out of his pleadings.

The primary legal issue before the Court of Appeal was whether the applicant should be granted leave to file his summons out of time. This required the court to consider whether the matter raised an issue of principle, public importance, or whether refusing the application would result in injustice.

The Court of Appeal refused the application for leave to file the summons out of time. The court did not provide detailed reasons for this refusal in the provided text, but the outcome indicates that the threshold for granting such an extension, particularly in the context of an appeal concerning pleadings struck out for being out of time, was not met.

Consequently, the applicant was ordered to pay the costs of the respondent for both the application for leave to appeal out of time and the application for leave to appeal. These costs were quantified at $5,000 as a gross sum.