Feiglin v Ainsworth

Feiglin v Ainsworth was a case that involved a dispute over the payment of commissions and the right to information, which was brought before the court. The plaintiff, Mr Feiglin, sought to recover commission payments that he claimed were owed to him from the defendant, Mr Ainsworth. The claim was predicated on the assertion that Mr Ainsworth owed him a fiduciary obligation to disclose information that would have enabled him to claim his commission. The case was heard in the Federal Court of Australia.

The court was required to determine several legal issues, including when the cause of action accrued, the applicability of the statute of limitations, and the effect of the Limitation of Actions Act 1958 on claims for equitable relief. The central question was whether Mr Feiglin's claim was statute-barred under the provisions of the Limitation of Actions Act 1958.

The court found that the cause of action accrued when the commission payments were due and payable, not when Mr Feiglin became aware of the alleged breach of fiduciary obligation. The court also held that the statute of limitations applied to claims for equitable relief by analogy to the provisions of the Limitation of Actions Act 1958. Given that more than six years had elapsed since the commission payments were due, the court ruled that Mr Feiglin's claim was statute-barred. Consequently, the court dismissed Mr Feiglin's claim in its entirety.