A record of recent High Court of Australia cases: decided, reserved for judgment, awaiting hearing in the Court’s original jurisdiction, granted special leave to appeal, refused special leave to appeal and not proceeding or vacated

1: Summary of New Entries
2: Cases Handed Down
3: Cases Reserved
4: Original Jurisdiction
5: Section 40 Removal
6: Special Leave Granted
7: Cases Not Proceeding or Vacated
8: Special Leave Refused

1: Summary of New Entries

2: Cases Handed Down

Case	Title
GLJ v The Trustees of the Roman Catholic Church for the Diocese of Lismore	Civil Procedure
Benbrika v Minister for Home Affairs & Anor	Constitutional Law
Jones v Commonwealth of Australia & Ors	Constitutional Law
HCF v The Queen	Criminal Law
McNamara v The King	Evidence
Young & Anor v Chief Executive Officer (Housing)	Leases and Tenancies

3: Cases Reserved

Case	Title
Tesseract International Pty Ltd v Pascale Construction Pty Ltd	Arbitration
NZYQ v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs & Anor	Constitutional Law
Hurt v The King; Delzotto v The King	Criminal Law
The King v Anna Rowan – A Pseudonym	Criminal Law
Lesianawai v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs	Immigration

4: Original Jurisdiction

5: Section 40 Removal

6: Special Leave Granted

Case	Title
CBI Constructors Pty Ltd & Anor v Chevron Australia Pty Ltd	Arbitration
Willmot v The State of Queensland	Civil Procedure
Dayney v The King	Criminal Law
Director of Public Prosecutions (Cth) v Kola	Criminal Law
Cook (A Pseudonym) v The King	Evidence
Toyota Motor Corporation Australia Limited (ACN 009 686 097) v Williams & Anor	Trade Practices
Williams & Anor v Toyota Motor Corporation Australia Limited (ACN 009 686 097)	Trade Practices

7: Cases Not Proceeding or Vacated

8: Special Leave Refused

2: Cases Handed Down

The following cases were handed down by the High Court of Australia during the November 2023 sittings.

Civil Procedure

GLJ v The Trustees of the Roman Catholic Church for the Diocese of Lismore

S150/2022: [2023] HCA 32

Judgment delivered: 1 November 2023

Coram: Kiefel CJ, Gageler, Steward, Gleeson and Jagot JJ

Catchwords:

Courts – Abuse of process – Permanent stay of proceedings – Where appellant commenced claim for damages for personal injury against respondent 52 years after alleged sexual assault by priest employed by respondent occurred – Where no limitation period for claims resulting from child sexual abuse under s 6A of Limitation Act 1969 (NSW) – Whether death of alleged perpetrator and other critical witnesses is exceptional circumstance so trial of proceedings would be necessarily unfair – Whether proceeding in such circumstances an abuse of process justifying permanent stay of proceedings.
Courts – Appeals – Applicable standard of appellate review – Where party seeking permanent stay of proceedings – Where grant of permanent stay of proceedings requires determination of whether trial will be necessarily unfair or so unfairly and unjustifiably oppressive as to constitute an…

Grounds of appeal

[14] The appellant contends that the primary judge erred in finding that the respondent had discharged the onus of establishing the matters required under the relevant provision.

[15] It was submitted that his Honour failed to give adequate weight to the evidence of the second witness, and that the findings of fact were not reasonably open on the material before the Court.

[16] The respondent, for its part, submits that no error is disclosed, and that the conclusions reached were well within the range of outcomes available to the primary judge.

Consideration

[17] It is convenient to deal first with the question of construction, as the resolution of that issue informs the remaining grounds advanced by the appellant.

[18] For the reasons that follow, we are of the view that the appeal should be allowed in part and the matter remitted for further determination.

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Details

AGLC: High Court Bulletin [2023] HCAB 9
Case: [2023] HCAB 9
Decision Date

CaseChat Overview and Summary

In the case of GLJ v The Trustees of the Roman Catholic Church for the Diocese of Lismore, the High Court of Australia considered whether a permanent stay of proceedings was appropriate in a case of alleged child sexual abuse by a priest. The Court found that the death of the alleged perpetrator and other critical witnesses constituted exceptional circumstances that would make a trial necessarily unfair, justifying a permanent stay of proceedings. The Court also clarified the applicable standard of appellate review in such cases, finding that the question of abuse of process involves the exercise of discretion and error of principle, rather than a correctness standard.

In Benbrika v Minister for Home Affairs & Anor, the Court examined whether a provision of the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 (Cth) that allows the Minister for Home Affairs to determine that a person ceases to be an Australian citizen if they have been convicted of terrorism-related offences and sentenced to imprisonment for at least three years is contrary to the Constitution. The Court found that the provision did not confer upon the Minister exclusively judicial functions of adjudging and punishing criminal guilt, as it was a punitive measure following a court's adjudication of criminal guilt.

In Jones v Commonwealth of Australia & Ors, the Court considered whether a provision of the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 (Cth) that allows the Minister to revoke a person's Australian citizenship if they are convicted of a serious offence after making an application to become an Australian citizen is supported by the Constitution. The Court found that the provision was supported by the Constitution and did not confer exclusively judicial functions on the Minister, as it was reasonably capable of being seen as necessary for the purpose of protecting the integrity of the naturalisation process.

Orders