JE, In the matter of an application for leave to issue or file

[2023] HCATrans 120

[2023] HCATrans 120

IN THE HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA

Office of the Registry
  Sydney  No S87 of 2023

In the matter of ‑

an application by JE for leave to issue or file

GAGELER J

TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

AT CANBERRA ON THURSDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2023, AT 9.33 AM

Copyright in the High Court of Australia

HIS HONOUR:   I refuse the application for leave to issue or file the proposed application for a constitutional or other writ.  I publish my reasons and direct that those reasons be incorporated into the transcript.  The order I make is:

1.The ex parte application for leave to issue or file the application for a constitutional or other writ is refused.

I publish that order.

On 14 July 2023, the applicant filed an application for leave to issue or file an application for a constitutional or other writ seeking various forms of relief, supported by an affidavit sworn by her on 11 July 2023. Leave is required because of a direction made by Gleeson J on 21 June 2023 in accordance with r 6.07.2 of the High Court Rules 2004 (Cth) that the Registrar refuse to issue or file the proposed application without the leave of a Justice of this Court first had and obtained.

The proposed application names as defendants the Central Coast Local Health District, the State of New South Wales, Nationwide News Pty Ltd, and the Australian Communications and Media Authority.  The relief sought is wide-ranging and not comprehensibly expressed.  The applicant seeks, among other things, an “[o]rder to stop aspects of breach of copyright and plagiarism” of unspecified “personal work material and personal identity privacy and contract law [sic]”; an order returning to the applicant custody of one of her children; and an “order [for] monetary damages/compensation clarifying defamation/discrimination in terms [of] socio-economic status, human rights policy, personal injury/emotional trauma”.

The applicant has been party to various proceedings relating to custody of her children to which the proposed application appears to relate.  In August 2018, the District Court of New South Wales dismissed the applicant’s challenge to a decision of the Children’s Court of New South Wales by which parental responsibility for the applicant’s two children was allocated to persons other than the applicant.  On 3 July 2019, the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of New South Wales varied[1] the District Court’s order and remitted the matter to the District Court for redetermination.  Thereafter, the District Court dismissed the remitted appeal and the Court of Appeal dismissed[2] the applicant’s summons seeking to have that decision quashed.

[1]JE v Secretary, Department of Family and Community Services [2019] NSWCA 162.

[2]JE v Secretary, Department of Communities and Justice (No 2) [2020] NSWCA 243.

The proposed application and affidavit in support of the application for leave to file also refer to a decision of the District Court[3] made on 23 February 2022 striking out and dismissing separate proceedings commenced by the applicant in that Court seeking damages against the four defendants named in the proposed application, as well as a further decision of the Court of Appeal[4] made on 15 July 2022 refusing leave to appeal from those orders.

[3]JE v Central Coast Local Health District & Ors [2022] NSWDC 31.

[4]JE v Central Coast Local Health District [2022] NSWCA 125.

The proposed application and affidavit do not clearly identify the grounds, if any, on which the applicant seeks to challenge any of these decisions.  The documents instead make a number of generalised allegations concerning unrelated matters, including an alleged “false application” made to the New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal, a dispute between the applicant and her neighbour, unspecified “false representation[s]” made by one or more of the defendants, and unspecified breaches of suppression and non-publication orders made by the District Court.

The proposed application and affidavit do not disclose any basis on which the applicant is entitled to relief within the jurisdiction of this Court to grant.  The proposed application is frivolous, vexatious and an abuse of process.

Accordingly, the order I will make is:

The ex parte application for leave to issue or file the application for a constitutional or other writ is refused.

The Court will now adjourn to 10.00 am.

AT 9.34 AM THE MATTER WAS CONCLUDED