Chan v Harris

In the Federal Court of Australia, Yau Hang Chan, the applicant, filed a case against Alan Harris, the respondent, seeking preliminary discovery of documents related to a report prepared by Local Employment and Training Solutions (LETS) programs. Chan believed that the report contained fraudulent and defamatory allegations about him. The case was heard by Katzmann J, who dismissed Chan's application for discovery of documents and denied his request for disqualification of the judge. Chan filed a notice of appeal against the interlocutory judgment, but did not obtain leave to appeal, making the appeal incompetent. The court advised Chan to file a notice of motion and affidavit in support to apply for leave, but Chan instead filed a notice of motion seeking various orders, including a declaration that a section of the Federal Court of Australia Act 1976 is unconstitutional.

The court refused to hear some of the prayers in Chan's notice of motion and granted him leave to amend his notice of motion to seek leave to appeal and an extension of time. Chan filed a further notice of motion seeking various orders, including an injunction staying certain decisions until the final determination of the case. However, the court dismissed the application and all remaining notices of motion with costs, making any appeal from the decision subject to the requirement of leave. The court refused leave to amend the notice of appeal, as the original notice of appeal was incompetent and leave was also required to appeal from the final judgment. The court also refused leave to issue further subpoenas as there was no legitimate forensic purpose for their issue.

The court refused to entertain an oral application for a stay of the final judgment, informing Chan that he could file a notice of motion seeking such an order. The court decided that the most appropriate course was to order Chan to file and serve an affidavit attaching a draft notice of appeal incorporating the existing grounds and any further grounds he may wish to raise in relation to the judgment, and to stand over the hearing of the remaining prayers in the notices of motion to a date to be fixed.