Nguyen v Nguyen (No 3)

Court of Appeal

Supreme Court

New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation:

Nguyen v Nguyen (No 3) [2022] NSWCA 171

Hearing dates:

On the papers

Date of orders:

31 August 2022

Decision date:

31 August 2022

Before:

Bell CJ; Meagher JA

Decision:

Notice of Motion of 18 August 2021 dismissed with costs

Catchwords:

CIVIL PROCEDURE – no issue of principle

Legislation Cited:

Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW) r 36.15

Cases Cited:

Nguyen v Nguyen (No 2) [2021] NSWCA 325

Nguyen v Nguyen [2021] NSWCA 161

Nguyen v Nguyen [2021] NSWSC 718

Category:

Principal judgment

Parties:

Anh Tuan Nguyen (Applicant)
Thi Anh Thuy Nguyen (Respondent)

Representation:

Counsel:

A T Nguyen (Applicant in person)
B Zipser (Respondent)

Solicitors:

Integrity Legal Specialists (Respondent)

File Number(s):

2021/28303

Publication restriction:

N/A

 Decision under appeal 

Court or tribunal:

Supreme Court of New South Wales

Jurisdiction:

Equity

Citation:

[2019] NSWSC 131;

[2019] NSWSC 1103

Date of Decision:

22 February 2019;
27 August 2019

Before:

Slattery J

File Number(s):

2015/151521

JUDGMENT

1. THE COURT: On 16 December 2021, we delivered judgment in Nguyen v Nguyen (No 2) [2021] NSWCA 325. That judgment was in relation to Prayer 3 of a Notice of Motion which had been filed by the Applicant in this Court on 18 August 2021 (the August Notice of Motion) and which sought, inter alia, to set aside our earlier judgment delivered on 3 August 2021: Nguyen v Nguyen [2021] NSWCA 161.

2. These reasons presuppose familiarity with both of our earlier judgments. For present purposes it suffices to note that, by our judgment of 3 August 2021, we refused an application for an extension of time to appeal from a decision of Slattery J delivered on 22 February 2019: Nguyen v Nguyen [2019] NSWSC 131.

3. Prayer 3 of the August Notice of Motion was, in effect, an application for an order requiring the Respondent to produce certain documents in aid of other relief sought in the August Notice of Motion. The relief sought in Prayer 3 was refused with costs in our judgment of 16 December 2021. We also ordered that:

“If the Applicant wishes to pursue the balance of the relief sought in the Notice of Motion, the Applicant is to file and serve written submissions of no more than 5 pages by 4pm on 25 January 2022, with the Respondent to file and serve any submissions in reply by 4pm on 2 February 2022.”

The Applicant took up this invitation. There was a slip in the timetable but that can be put to one side for present purposes. It was noted in our judgment of 16 December 2021 at [14] that, if the balance of the relief sought in the August Notice of Motion were to be pursued, it would be dealt with on the papers.

4. What was left of the August Notice of Motion to be determined, other than Prayer 3, was as follows:

“1  To review and set aside decision 1 & 2 of Court of…