Liu v The Owners - Strata Plan No 53093

The applicant, Liu, sought to appeal a decision of the District Court, which itself had been an appeal from a Local Court judgment. The respondent was The Owners - Strata Plan No 53093. The proceedings were before the Court of Appeal of New South Wales.

The primary legal issue before the Court of Appeal was whether there was a right of appeal from the District Court's decision to the Court of Appeal, and if not, whether the proceedings should be treated as an application for judicial review. A secondary issue concerned the costs of the proceedings.

Basten AJA determined that there was no statutory right of appeal from the District Court's decision in this instance. The Court considered whether the proceedings could be characterised as seeking judicial review, but found no grounds to support a reasonably arguable case for such review. Consequently, the summons was dismissed as incompetent.

The Court ordered that the summons filed in the Common Law Division and transferred to the Court of Appeal be dismissed as incompetent. Furthermore, no order was made as to the costs of the proceedings in the Court of Appeal or in the Division.