CQM Group Pty Ltd v Lacoa Management

[2013] QCAT 559

CITATION: CQM Group Pty Ltd v Lacoa Management 
 [2013] QCAT 559

PARTIES:	CQM Group Pty Ltd (Applicant)
v
Lacoa Management  (Respondent)

APPLICATION NUMBER: MCDO0021-13

MATTER TYPE: Other minor civil dispute matters

HEARING DATE: On the papers

HEARD AT: Brisbane

DECISION OF: Michelle Howard, Acting Senior Member

DELIVERED ON: 11 September 2013

DELIVERED AT: Brisbane

ORDERS MADE: 1.    The stay application is refused.

CATCHWORDS:

MINOR CIVIL DISPUTE - application for stay of tribunal orders – where proceedings had been determined

Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2009

APPEARANCES and REPRESENTATION (if any):

This matter was heard and determined on the papers pursuant to s 32 of the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2009 (QCAT Act).

REASONS FOR DECISION

1. An application for a minor civil dispute was filed by CQM Group Pty Ltd in Gladstone on 3 April 2013 seeking orders for payment to it by Lacoa Management of an amount of $2119. A response was filed by Lacoa Management seeking orders that the claim be dismissed.

2. The claim was heard by the Tribunal in Gladstone on 16 August 2013. Lacoa Management failed to attend the hearing. Orders were made requiring Lacoa Management to pay the sum of $2119 to CQM Group within one month.

3. On 23 August 2013, Lacoa Management filed an application for a stay of the Tribunal’s decision.

4. I considered the stay application and refused it.

5. Lacoa Management has now sought reasons for my decision.

6. The minor civil dispute application had been heard and determined. There was no application currently before the Tribunal in which the stay of a decision might be granted.

7. The Tribunal is created by statute and only has the powers given to it by the legislation which governs it. It does not have jurisdiction at large and has no inherent jurisdiction. A stay may only be granted by the Tribunal under the QCAT Act in the circumstances for which it provides and if, it is in the particular circumstances of the parties, appropriate to do so.

8. The QCAT Act provides essentially that an order staying the operation of a decision may be made pending determination of the proceeding in the context of ongoing (that is, yet to be heard and determined) proceedings in the Tribunal’s review jurisdiction[1] or appeal jurisdiction.[2] Some other legislation gives some broader powers to the Tribunal to stay specified decisions.[3] However, there is no other legislation that is relevant to this minor civil dispute claim.

   [1] QCAT Act s 22(3).

   [2] QCAT act s145(2).

   [3]        For example, see the Food Act 2006.

9. In this case, the proceedings between the parties were not in the Tribunal’s review jurisdiction, they were in its minor civil dispute jurisdiction. In the absence of an appeal (or application for reopening),[4] the proceedings were finalised by the Tribunal’s orders of 16 August 2013. As there are no proceedings on foot in which the stay application could be properly considered or granted, the application to stay a decision was refused.

   [4]An application for reopening does not give rise to a power to make an order staying a decision, although an application for an interim order may be made in these circumstances under s58 of the QCAT Act.