North Sydney Leagues' Club Ltd v Synergy Protection Agency Pty Ltd

The New South Wales Court of Appeal considered an appeal by North Sydney Leagues' Club Ltd against a decision awarding damages to Synergy Protection Agency Pty Ltd for breach of a contract for the provision of security services.

The primary legal issues before the Court of Appeal were whether the trial judge had erred in including overhead expenses in the assessment of expectation damages awarded to Synergy Protection Agency, and whether the evidence presented to prove the claim for damages was sufficient, particularly in light of challenges to the reliability and admissibility of accounting evidence.

The Court of Appeal affirmed the trial judge's decision, holding that there is no absolute principle that overhead expenses must be excluded from an award of expectation damages. Applying the principle from *The Commonwealth of Australia v Amann Aviation Pty Ltd*, the Court found that Synergy Protection Agency was entitled to damages that would place it in the position it would have occupied had the contract been performed. Regarding the sufficiency of evidence, the Court determined that any inaccuracies in the accounting evidence were not of a magnitude to cast sufficient doubt on its overall accuracy, and that the sufficiency of evidence was a matter for the trial judge's assessment. The Court also noted that section 146 of the *Evidence Act 1995* concerns documents produced by mechanical processes and does not address the underlying accuracy of the information contained within a reproduced record.

The appeal was dismissed, and North Sydney Leagues' Club Ltd was ordered to pay Synergy Protection Agency Pty Ltd's costs.