Lawrence v Ciantar (No 2)

In *Lawrence v Ciantar (No 2)*, the Court of Appeal of New South Wales considered an application to re-open a decision previously made by the Court. The application was brought by the applicant, seeking to set aside or vary the Court's earlier orders.

The central legal issue before the Court was whether it had the power to re-open its own decision under rule 36.16 of the *Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005* (NSW), commonly referred to as the "slip rule," and whether the circumstances warranted the exercise of such power. This rule allows a court to correct a slip or oversight in its judgment or order. The applicant also raised arguments concerning procedural fairness.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the application, finding that the applicant had not demonstrated that the Court had made a "slip" in its previous decision or order. The Court reiterated that the slip rule is intended to correct errors arising from accidental omissions or misstatements, not to allow a party to re-argue a case or to introduce new arguments that could have been raised earlier. The applicant's arguments did not fall within the scope of what the slip rule was designed to address, and therefore, the Court declined to re-open its prior determination.

Consequently, the Court ordered that the notice of motion filed on 26 May 2020 be dismissed, and that the applicant pay the respondents' costs of the motion.