Gibbings v McGinn

[2013] QDC 217

[2013] QDC 217

DISTRICT COURT OF QUEENSLAND

CIVIL JURISDICTION

JUDGE ROBIN QC

No 595 of 2013

STEVEN PETER GREGORY GIBBINGS  Plaintiff

and

PETER JAMES MCGINN  Defendant

BRISBANE

2.45 PM, MONDAY, 20 MAY 2013

ORDER

CATCHWORDS

Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 116

Service of claim and statement of claim by use of email

HIS HONOUR:   The court makes an order in terms of the intialled draft for substituted service of the claim and statement of claim in this proceeding.  The document signed differs from that proffered by Mr Dreyer, appearing for the plaintiff applicant, in that his proposal was that service of the documents should be deemed to have occurred immediately after sending of an email forwarding copies of the relevant court documents and of this order.  That was only part of the means of substituted service required by the preceding paragraph of the order, which also, in the usual way, required sending of them by ordinary pre-paid post, with a copy of the order.  The address selected is on information that’s corroborated by a person who’s apparently the defendant.  It is his usual residence but he says himself he’s rarely there.

The plaintiff’s interest in it flows from his being in a position to claim, under the contractual arrangements between the parties, a charge over the defendant’s real property to secure payment of moneys owing for work done.  There’s placed before the court an email from the email address identified in the order, complaining about the lodging of a caveat.  That makes the email address useful.  Mr Dreyer’s submissions provide some comfort for the court in specifying that means of service, which I have embraced before Mr Dreyer found it adopted in a Federal Court decision Speedo Holdings BV v Evans [2011] FCA 1089. The process server has attended at the residence on multiple occasions without any success.

The material before the court indicates that he’s probably aware of the proceeding anyway.  The change made to the order is one whereby service is deemed to have

occurred two business days after the steps referred to in paragraph 3 have been taken.  The orders are as  per the initialled draft.

______________________