Huang v Green Slips Direct Pty Ltd trading as Australian Motor Traders (NSW)

The matter of Huang v Green Slips Direct Pty Ltd trading as Australian Motor Traders (NSW) involved a plaintiff who had commenced proceedings for personal injury. The defendant, despite being served with the originating process and various correspondences from the plaintiff's solicitors, did not participate in the proceedings. The plaintiff's solicitors made multiple attempts to contact the defendant to no avail. Consequently, the court entered a default judgment in the plaintiff's favour and listed the matter for a hearing to assess damages.

The legal issues before the court were whether the judgment for the assessed sum should be set aside, if the defendant had a bona fide defence, whether the defendant had satisfactorily explained the delay, and whether setting aside the judgment would cause prejudice. The defendant applied to set aside the judgment after it was notified of the judgment amount in June 2022. The defendant's solicitors filed the Notice of Motion in August 2022. The court considered the circumstances of the defendant's inaction and found that the defendant had not demonstrated a reasonable explanation for the delay or provided a bona fide defence. The court also found that setting aside the judgment would cause undue prejudice to the plaintiff.

The court dismissed the defendant's Notice of Motion and refused the application to set aside the judgment. The court ordered the defendant to pay the plaintiff's costs, with liberty to apply.