Kekatos v Westpac Banking Corporation

Kekatos (the applicant) sought leave to appeal from decisions of the primary judge concerning a dispute with Westpac Banking Corporation (the respondent). Initially, a default judgment was entered against the applicant for a sum of money and possession of property. This default judgment was subsequently set aside by consent. However, the applicant then applied to set aside the consent order and reinstate the default judgment, albeit for a reduced amount. The core of the dispute revolved around whether the applicant had an arguable defence to the claim for this lesser amount.

The Court of Appeal was required to determine whether the applicant had demonstrated an arguable defence to the claim for the reduced sum, which was a prerequisite for setting aside the consent order and reinstating the default judgment. This involved assessing the merits of the applicant's proposed defence in the context of the application to vacate the consent order.

The Court of Appeal granted leave to appeal in respect of certain orders made on 5 November 2015 and set aside those orders. However, the application for leave to appeal was otherwise dismissed. The applicant was ordered to pay the respondent's costs of the appeal.