Foote v Dixon

The Court of Appeal of New South Wales considered an application by the parties in *Foote v Dixon* to have consent orders entered, which would uphold an appeal and order a new trial. The respondent disputed that there was arguable appealable error, and both parties indicated that a new trial would not, in fact, take place.

The central legal issues before the Court were whether it should order a new trial without hearing the appeal, given the parties' agreement that a new trial would not occur, and whether such an application constituted an abuse of the Court's process or forum-shopping. The Court also had to consider the impact of such an order on judicial and court resources and the potential consequences if the parties' agreement not to conduct a new trial was later broken.

The Court reasoned that it was not appropriate to make orders for a new trial based solely on the parties' consent when there was no demonstrable appealable error and no intention to actually conduct a new trial. The Court held that entering consent orders for a new trial in these circumstances would be an improper use of the Court's resources and would undermine the integrity of the appellate process. The Court determined that the appeal should be listed for a hearing before a differently constituted Court of Appeal.