Poulos v Australia and New Zealand Banking Group

The applicants, Poulos and others, sought an extension of time to bring an application for leave to appeal against a decision of the primary judge. The respondent was Australia and New Zealand Banking Group. The dispute concerned the applicants' attempt to appeal a prior decision, the nature of which is not detailed in the provided text. The matter came before the Court of Appeal of New South Wales, constituted by Brereton and Mitchelmore JJA.

The central legal issue before the Court of Appeal was whether to grant an extension of time for the applicants to file their application for leave to appeal. This required the Court to consider whether there was any discretionary error in the original decision that would warrant such an extension, and to assess the merits of granting an extension of time, particularly given the application was out of time.

The Court of Appeal found no discretionary error of the kind referred to in *House v The King* that would justify granting an extension of time. In the absence of such error, and considering the application was made out of time, the Court determined that it should not exercise its discretion to extend the time for bringing the application for leave to appeal.

Consequently, the Court of Appeal refused the application for an extension of time in which to bring an application for leave to appeal.