Edmunds & Ors v Pickering & Ors (No 6) No. Scgrg-88-2452

[2000] SASC 392

EDMUNDS & ORS V PICKERING & ORS (NO. 6)

[2000] SASC 392

Civil (Ex Tempore)

1................ LANDER J....... This is an application for leave to appeal from my decision today refusing an application for a stay of my orders made on 10 August 2000.

1. The defendants submit that I should give leave, because the application for a stay raises matters of general principle and of importance to the parties.  They submit that in the event that a stay is not ordered, the defendants may be kept out, for all time, of the proceeds of the exploitation of the authority in the event that the defendants are successful on appeal.

2. As I have said in my reasons for refusing the stay, the defendants offer to receive $514,544 from the plaintiffs and in exchange transfer the authority to a third party, unidentified, to be held in escrow on unidentified terms. As I pointed out to Mr Robertson, on this application for leave to appeal, it is possible that the defendants would not repay the sum of $514,544 and on the proposal put by the defendants that the sum would always be lost to the plaintiffs.

3. It seems to me that the defendants wish to be protected against any potential loss that they may suffer, but they wish to seek that protection at the expense of the plaintiffs. In my opinion, the proposals put forward by the defendants do not give rise to matters upon which leave to appeal should be granted.  The application is refused.