Kinglake Friends of the Forest Inc. v VicForests (No 3)

The case before the court involved Kinglake Friends of the Forest Inc. (the plaintiff) suing VicForests (the defendant) regarding logging activities. The plaintiff alleged that the defendant had engaged in illegal logging in the Kinglake region. The dispute was heard in the Supreme Court of Victoria. The plaintiff sought to amend its statement of claim to include new allegations and declarations, while the defendant opposed the amendments and also sought to strike out certain parts of the amended statement of claim. The defendant argued that some of the proposed amendments would, in substance, assert that the defendant had committed criminal offences and that there were no grounds to strike out allegations of past contraventions.

The court had to determine whether the plaintiff's proposed amendments had a real prospect of success, whether the proposed amended declarations would amount to allegations of criminal offences, and if there were grounds to strike out allegations of past contraventions. The court also considered the case management measures available to the defendant. The court found that while the proposed amended claims had a real prospect of success, the proposed amended declarations would, in substance, allege that the defendant had committed criminal offences. The court decided that these declarations should be struck out as they would not be appropriate for the court to consider in a civil proceeding. The court also found that there were grounds to strike out allegations of past contraventions.

The court granted leave to the plaintiff to file a further amended statement of claim, excluding the proposed amended declarations. The court held that the defendant's challenge to the plaintiff's standing should be determined at trial rather than before the trial. The court's decision was guided by the Supreme Court (General Civil Procedure) Rules 2015 (Vic), rule 23.02. The final orders of the court were that the plaintiff could file a further amended statement of claim, excluding the proposed amended declarations, and that the defendant's challenge to the plaintiff's standing would be determined at trial.