Chien v CPT Manager Ltd & Quad Services Pty Ltd

[2010] QDC 324

[2010] QDC 324

DISTRICT COURT

CIVIL JURISDICTION

JUDGE ROBIN QC

No 2269 of 2010

CATHERINE CHIEN	Applicant
and
CPT MANAGER LIMITED and QUAD SERVICES PTY LTD	Respondents

BRISBANE

..DATE 13/08/2010

ORDER

CATCHWORDS

Personal Injuries Proceedings Act 2002, s 43

Whether evidence before court sufficiently indicated consent of proposed defendants to leave being granted to commence a proceeding

HIS HONOUR:  The court makes an order in terms of a consent order on which I have written the heading "Draft Order".

It authorises the applicant to start proceedings in respect of injuries suffered in a fall or falls on 19 August 2007, which means that the limitation period is about to run out.

The applicant and the two respondents, proposed defendants, have been engaged in carrying out the pre-litigation steps mandated by the Personal Injuries Proceedings Act 2002.

Those respondents have separately signed copies of the consent order.  So far as the first respondent, which was the owner of the shopping centre where the applicant fell, is concerned, there is a signature by a firm of solicitors on the relevant document.

In respect of the second defendant, which has been selected as the relevant cleaning contractor charged with keeping the premises safe, the word "solicitor" has been struck out and replaced by "claims manager".

The court proceeds on the basis that either Quad Services Pty Ltd had its own claims manager clothed with authority to sign such a document on its behalf or that the "claims manager" is representing a relevant insurer.

Exhibit 2 is a letter of the applicant's solicitors to the second respondent and the other entity alluded to above.  The return of the signed consent order was the response.  Making the order is justified in the circumstances.

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