Maylord Equity Management Pty Ltd as Trustee of the Batterham Retirement Fund v Nauer

Maylord Equity Management Pty Ltd as Trustee of the Batterham Retirement Fund (the applicant) sought leave to appeal interlocutory decisions made in proceedings against Mr Nauer (the respondent). The decisions under challenge included orders striking out pleadings, dismissing an application to set aside earlier orders, and dismissing the proceedings for want of despatch. The appeal was heard by Basten JA and Leeming JA of the Court of Appeal of New South Wales.

The primary legal issue before the Court of Appeal was whether the primary judge had made an appellable error in the interlocutory decisions that were the subject of the proposed appeal. This involved considering whether the decisions to strike out pleadings, dismiss the application to set aside orders, and dismiss the proceedings for want of despatch were legally sound and procedurally fair.

The Court of Appeal found no appellable error in the decisions of the primary judges. The court refused the application to extend the time within which to file a notice of leave to appeal from the judgment and orders of Bergin CJ in Eq of 24 October 2016 and of Ward CJ in Eq of 22 May 2017. Furthermore, leave to appeal from the judgments of Slattery J of 6 November 2017 and 19 December 2017 was also refused. Consequently, the applicants were ordered to pay the respondent’s costs of the proceedings.