Kyriakopoulos v Chief Commissioner of State Revenue

[2018] NSWCATAD 304

Civil and Administrative Tribunal

New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation:	Kyriakopoulos v Chief Commissioner of State Revenue [2018] NSWCATAD 304
Hearing dates:	31 October2018
Date of orders:	31 October 2018
Decision date:	31 October 2018
Jurisdiction:	Administrative and Equal Opportunity Division
Before:	R L Hamilton S.C. Senior Member
Decision:	(1) The proceeding is dismissed/settled. (2) Each party to pay their own costs.
Catchwords:	LITIGATION- settlement agreement- whether binding
Legislation Cited:	N/a
Cases Cited:	N/a
Texts Cited:	N/a
Category:	Principal judgment
Parties:	Mr H Kyriakopoulos (Applicant) Chief Commissioner of State Revenue (Respondent)
Representation:	Counsel: Applicant in person Mr Kanagaratnam (Respondent)     Solicitors: Crown Solicitors Office (Respondent)
File Number(s):	2018/109962
Publication restriction:	Nil

ReASONS FOR DECISION

1. I gave ex tempore reasons for my Order at the conclusion of the hearing. The Applicant has requested I put my reasons in writing.

2. The controversy between the parties concerned a land tax liability. The applicant lodged an application with the Tribunal to review the respondent’s decision. By consent, the Tribunal referred the matter to mediation. The mediation went ahead and a settlement agreement was signed by both parties. When the matter came back before me to make formal orders the applicant claimed that he had signed the settlement agreement conditionally subject receiving to legal advice. He now wished to resile from the agreement.

3. A timetable was set for evidence from both parties. The senior solicitor with carriage of the matter at the Crown Solicitors Office gave evidence that she was at the mediation and signed the settlement agreement on behalf of the respondent, and that the applicant had not expressed any reservations about signing the agreement. There is nothing in writing to suggest execution of the agreement was conditional.

4. The applicant did not persuade me that the settlement agreement he signed was in any way subject to conditions.

5. I gave the following ex tempore reasons at the conclusion of the hearing and I confirm them now:

“I do not think I am going to be assisted by any further evidence or any additional submissions so on that basis I think we really do need to determine this, Mr Kyriakopoulos, and the settlement document does speak for itself. There is nothing on that document which indicates that it was, in any way, conditional. I am not really convinced that there was, in any respect, a misunderstanding relating to the payment of the outstanding liability that somehow rendered the settlement agreement, in any way, conditional.

There was, I suppose, a reasonably quick movement by you afterwards but it was still five days approximately after the signing of the settlement agreement before you said, “Well, possibly I’d like to put it on hold” which I am afraid is a bit too late for that. You have had numerous opportunities to establish firmly that this was something which was on a conditional basis and I am still not at all persuaded that on the balance of probabilities at the time that it was that. It was properly conducted; the Chief Commissioner acted in his usual manner of good faith, as far as I can tell, from the evidence handed to me; it was under the guidance of an experienced independent mediator and I think that even though you may have had other things on your mind at the time, personal matters and so forth, that was insufficient in my view to cloud your judgment about whether or not it was appropriate to sign something that on the face of it is unconditional.

I am afraid you are stuck with what you have signed up to and you are going to have to live with that, and so that is going to be my decision, they are my reasons and my decision is in this case that the matter should be treated as withdrawn on the basis that it has been settled, and that is the order that I am going to make in this case.”

Orders

1. The proceeding is dismissed/settled.

2. Each party to pay their own costs.

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I hereby certify that this is a true and accurate record of the reasons for decision of the Civil and Administrative Tribunal of New South Wales.

Registrar

Decision last updated: 13 August 2019