Mansour v Jiang

In *Mansour v Jiang*, the applicant sought the summary dismissal of an application filed by the judgment debtors. The judgment debtors had sought to set aside a judgment previously made by consent. The core of the dispute revolved around whether the judgment debtors had reasonable prospects of successfully setting aside the consent judgment, either on the grounds of fraud or by amending it under the slip rule.

The court was required to determine two primary legal issues. Firstly, whether the judgment debtors had demonstrated reasonable prospects of establishing fraud sufficient to warrant setting aside the consent judgment. Secondly, the court had to consider whether there were reasonable prospects of amending the judgment under the slip rule, which typically applies to correct clerical errors or omissions.

Judge Manousaridis found that the judgment debtors had not presented a case with reasonable prospects of success on either ground. The evidence of fraud was deemed insufficient to meet the high threshold required for setting aside a consent judgment. Furthermore, the court determined that the alleged errors did not fall within the scope of the slip rule, as they were not mere clerical mistakes but rather attempts to re-litigate substantive issues. Consequently, the application to set aside the judgment was dismissed.

The court ordered that the application filed by the respondents (judgment debtors) on 16 May 2019 be dismissed pursuant to s.17A(2) of the *Federal Circuit Court of Australia Act 1999* (Cth). The respondents were also ordered to pay the applicant’s costs of the application.