Moses v Ratner

Moses v Ratner was a legal dispute that came before the Supreme Court of Victoria. The case revolved around issues of service and the deemed service of documents, specifically in the context of electronic communication. Moses, the plaintiff, sought to serve a Notice to Admit Facts on Ratner, the defendant, via email. The Notice required a response within 14 days. However, the defendant's solicitor did not become aware of the email until after the 14-day period had expired. Moses subsequently applied to set aside the Notice to Admit Facts, arguing that the email service was valid and that no consent had been given to serve documents by email.

The legal issues before the court included whether there had been deemed or informal service of the Notice to Admit Facts by email, and if there was any implied or actual consent given by the defendant's solicitor to receive documents by this method. Additionally, the court needed to determine whether the parts of the Notice to Admit Facts that were served by email amounted to an abuse of process. The court considered the course of correspondence between the parties and their solicitors, which had been conducted by email, to ascertain whether there was an established practice or consent to serve documents electronically.

The court found that there was no actual or inferred consent given by the defendant's solicitor to receive documents by email. Given the absence of consent, the court held that the Notice to Admit Facts served by email was not validly served. Furthermore, the court concluded that the parts of the Notice served by email amounted to an abuse of process, as it was unfair and unjust to serve such documents in a manner that the defendant's solicitor was unaware of. Consequently, the Notice to Admit Facts was set aside by the court.

In light of the above, the court ordered that the Notice to Admit Facts served by email was set aside and deemed to have no legal effect. The court further directed that any future communications and service of documents should be conducted in a manner that was agreed upon by both parties or as otherwise required by law.