Quach v New South Wales Health Care Complaints Commission; Quach v New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal

The proceedings involved Mr Michael Quach and the New South Wales Health Care Complaints Commission, as well as the New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT). The core dispute concerned whether Mr Quach should be prohibited from instituting or maintaining proceedings relating to the subject matter of the present proceedings, and whether any such prohibition should preserve his right to seek an extension of time for a statutory appeal against NCAT decisions. The matter was heard in the Court of Appeal of New South Wales.

The Court of Appeal was required to determine whether Mr Quach had frequently instituted or conducted vexatious proceedings in Australia, and whether he had taken steps in proceedings on several occasions that were found to be vexatious and an abuse of process, or taken steps with no reasonable cause. A further issue was whether the terms of any vexatious proceedings order should permit Mr Quach to seek an extension of time for a statutory appeal against decisions made by NCAT.

The Court reasoned that Mr Quach had indeed engaged in vexatious proceedings and abused process. It applied the provisions of the *Vexatious Proceedings Act 2008* (NSW) to address this conduct. The Court found that Mr Quach had a history of instituting proceedings that were an abuse of process or lacked reasonable cause.

The Court made several orders. It stayed interlocutory proceedings in three specific Court of Appeal matters (2015/158685, 2015/67618, and 2015/48269) pursuant to s 8(7)(a) of the *Vexatious Proceedings Act 2008* (NSW). Furthermore, pursuant to s 8(7)(b) of the same Act, Mr Quach was prohibited from instituting any further proceedings in New South Wales relating to the subject matter of specific NCAT proceedings (1420086 and 1420065) or the aforementioned Court of Appeal proceedings. Leave to serve a notice to produce directed to the third respondent was refused.