Director of Public Prosecutions v Moseley

In the case of Director of Public Prosecutions v Moseley, the defendant was convicted of aggravated robbery and appealed against the conviction. The defendant sought to have his conviction set aside by the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory on the basis that the decision of the Court of Criminal Appeal was actuated by fraud. The Court of Criminal Appeal had quashed the defendant’s conviction and ordered a new trial, finding that the fresh evidence presented was of sufficient quality that there was a significant possibility that the jury would have acquitted the defendant had they heard it. The Supreme Court was required to determine whether it had the jurisdiction to set aside the decision of the Court of Criminal Appeal on the grounds of fraud.

The court held that the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory has concurrent jurisdiction in law and equity and that its equitable jurisdiction includes the power to set aside common law judgments on the grounds of fraud. The court rejected the defendant’s argument that the Supreme Court’s equitable jurisdiction did not extend to appeal judgments. The court noted that there were no statutory provisions that abolished, excluded or limited the Supreme Court’s equitable jurisdiction to impeach judgments based on fraud. The court also noted that the potential of fraud to corrupt and bring into disrepute the system of justice administered by the courts has been referred to in strong terms by other courts.

The court held that the plaintiff would bear the onus of proof of the alleged fraud and that a judgment would only be set aside on the ground of fraud after an affirmative finding of the fraud alleged. The required standard of proof was on the balance of probabilities. The court concluded that it had the jurisdiction to set aside the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeal if fraud was established.

The court ordered that the matter be remitted to the Registrar of the Supreme Court to be listed for hearing on a date to be fixed by the Registrar.