Goldberg v Law Society of New South Wales

[1990] HCATrans 106

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IN THE HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA

Office of the Registry

Sydney No S9 of 1989

B e t w e e n -

CHARLES ALROY GOLDBERG

Applicant

and

LAW SOCIETY OF NEW SOUTH WALES

Respondent

For mention

MASON CJ
BRENNAN J

DEANE J

Goldberg

TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

AT SYDNEY ON FRIDAY, 11 MAY 1990, AT 10.00 AM

Copyright in the High Court of Australia

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MR A. BELL:  May it please the Court, I appear for the

applicant, the respondent to the motion. (instructed

by Messrs Bowman & Mackenzie)

MR G.C. LINDSAY:  May it please the Court, I appear for the

Society. (instructed by the Law Society of New

South Wales)

MASON CJ:	Yes?
MR LINDSAY: It is a matter, really,	at the moment, Your Honour,

of how the Court wishes to	proceed because there is a
special leave application.	My friend has the carrige

of that. We have put on a motion to bring that to a

head by - - -

MASON CJ: Yes, well, as I understood it, initially the

application for special leave was placed in the list

and then there was the respondent's motion filed

to have the application dismissed for want of

prosecution. I suppose, in the first instance, I

ought to inquire what is the position in the matter?

MR LINDSAY: Well, that inquiry should be directed, I think,

in the first instance to my friend.

MASON CJ:	Yes. Well, what do you say about it, Mr Bell?
MR BELL:	Your Honours, my instructions are to apply for an
adjournment of the motion and of the application
and those are the extent of my instructions.
MASON CJ:	Do your instructions go to the extent of telling us

what the ground of the application is?

MR BELL:  The grounds of the application for special leave - - -?

MASON CJ: No, no, the application for an adjournment?

MR BELL:	Your Honour despite considerable endeavours, my
instructing solicitor has not been able to have any
There has been no opportunity to give him notice of
contact with Mr Goldberg for some two or three months.
the motion which was served upon us on 8 May and we would simply ask for a reasonable period of time
in which to make one final effort to seek instructions
or, alternatively, to put on a motion permitting us to withdraw from the matter.

MASON CJ: Yes. Now, the application for special leave was

filed over a year ago, was it not? In Janury or

February or last year?

MR BELL:	Yes, Your Honour.
MASON CJ:	Why has it taken so long to bring the matter on for

hearing?

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Goldberg

MR BELL:	Your Honour, I can only say, in relation to that,
that my instructing solicitor has made every effort
on his part to further pursue the matter.
MASON CJ:	And it has been adjourned, has it not? It has been

listed for hearing and adjourned on one or more

occasions?

MR BELL:  On one occasion, I believe, Your Honour. The matter

does involve issues of considerable moment to

Mr Goldberg. His reputation and his honour as a

professional man is involved.

MASON CJ:  One would have thought if he was greatly concerned

about that he would have done something to bring the

matter on for hearing at a much earlier stage.

MR BELL:	Yes, Your Honour. My instructions are that if one
further reasonable period of adjournment could be
granted, that would be a final period.

MASON CJ: What do you have in mind as a "reasonable" period?

MR BELL:	Four weeks, Your Honour.
MASON CJ:	It might be difficult to have it listed in four weeks.

The next sitting in Sydney is in August.

MR BELL: Well, perhaps until August then, Your Honour. That

would certainly give my - - -

DEANE J:	It will sound better if you say until the next
sittings, Mr Bell.
MR BELL:	To the next sittings, Your Honour.

MASON CJ: Yes, Mr Lindsay, what do you say about this?

MR LINDSAY:  We formally oppose it but it is really a matter,

at the end of the day, for the Court as to whether

it is going to give Mr Goldberg one last chance.

DEANE J: A man's whole livelihood is involved. Surely the

Law Society does not object to one final adjournment.

What harm can it do?

MR LINDSAY:  Your Honour, the way I put it was that we formally

oppose it but ultimately we leave it to the Court to

decide whether it is a matter that he get one last
chance. The history of the matter justifies, in my

submission, the attitude taken by the Society but

ultimately we leave it to the Court.

MASON CJ: And those remarks contemplate a possible adjournment

until August? By that, I mean, it is conceivable

that we could list the matter in Melbourne but there

seems little point in that.

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MR BELL:	No, there would not be much point in that, Your Honour.
MR LINDSAY:	No, Mr Goldberg has not been practising since

about July 1987. He does not have a practising

certificate and I think he has given some undertakings

in that regard.

MASON CJ:  Yes. The Court will adjourn the matter until the

special leave sittings in Sydney in August.but I

should say that the Court does not contemplate that

there will be any further adjournment of the matter

except in circumstances presently not foreseen.

MR LINDSAY:  And as a matter of formality, might I ask the

costs of today be reserved?

MASON CJ: Yes. What do you say about that, Mr Bell?

MR BELL:	No objection.
MASON CJ:	Very well, the applicant for special leave will

pay to the respondent the costs of today's hearing.

MR LINDSAY:  Your Honour, so that I am accused of misleading

anybody, all I asked was that as a matter of

formality that the costs be reserved.	I did not
ask -

MASON CJ:	I am sorry.
MR LINDSAY:	I can well appreciate Your Honour would have been

a little bit displeased with me if I was trying to

press the question of costs at the moment.	I do not
want it be thought that - - -

MASON CJ: Well, we will order that costs be reserved, if

that was your application.

MR LINDSAY:	Yes, it was, thank you.
AT 10.06 AM THE MATTER WAS ADJOURNED SINE DIE

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