Cheng v Lam [No 2]

The appeal concerns the taking of an account of the financial dealings of a group of family members who were involved in a number of property development projects. The family members were partners in the projects. The proceedings have involved extensive litigation and were the subject of a report prepared by a registrar appointed by the Supreme Court of Western Australia. The primary judge adopted the report, save for one item. The appellant, Mary Yuen Shan Cheng, appeals against the primary judge's decision to adopt the registrar's report, advancing 12 grounds of appeal. Leave to appeal is required because the primary judge's orders were interlocutory in nature. For the reasons that follow, leave to appeal should be refused because none of the grounds of appeal has sufficient merit to justify a grant of leave to appeal. The primary judge's decision to adopt the report was correct. The appellant's grounds of appeal do not reveal any error of principle, or any error of the nature identified in Wenco Industrial Pty Ltd v WW Industries Pty Ltd and Wilden Pty Ltd v Green. The appellant's submissions in support of the grounds of appeal do no more than pay lip service to the legal principles governing the question of whether a court should adopt a referee's report. Rather, the tenor of the appeal is to contend that the registrar was wrong to allow or fail not to take into account various items as complained about in the taking of the account. The primary judge correctly rejected those contentions.