Comlin Holdings Pty Ltd v Metlej Developments Pty Ltd

Comlin Holdings Pty Ltd (the appellant) appealed to the Court of Appeal of New South Wales against a decision of the primary judge. The dispute concerned an adverse inference drawn by the trial judge from the appellant's failure to call a particular witness. The appellant sought to adduce further evidence on appeal.

The Court of Appeal was required to determine whether to grant the appellant's application to adduce further evidence. This involved considering whether the application should be adjourned and heard concurrently with the appeal, whether the conduct of the appellant's legal representative bound the party, and whether there was a high degree of probability that a different result would have been reached had the further evidence been adduced at trial, assessing the credibility of that evidence.

The Court dismissed the appellant's application to call further evidence. The reasoning, though not detailed in the provided text, would have involved an assessment against the established criteria for admitting fresh evidence on appeal, likely finding that the appellant had not satisfied the necessary threshold, particularly concerning the probability of a different outcome and the credibility of the proposed evidence. The Court also ordered the appellant to pay the respondents' costs of the motion.