R G Barber Pty Ltd v Kartaway Pty Ltd

[2015] QCAT 374

CITATION:	R G Barber Pty Ltd v Kartaway Pty Ltd [2015] QCAT 374
PARTIES:	R G Barber Pty Ltd (Applicant)
v
Kartaway Pty Ltd (Respondent)

APPLICATION NUMBER: MCDO72-15

MATTER TYPE: Other minor civil dispute matters

HEARING DATE: 27 August 2015

HEARD AT: Caboolture

DECISION OF: Adjudicator Bertelsen

DELIVERED ON: 27 August 2015

DELIVERED AT: Caboolture

ORDERS MADE: 1.    The Respondent’s application for transfer of the proceeding to the Magistrates Court is refused.

CATCHWORDS: Tribunal application validly initiated – response filed – application for transfer to magistrates court – reliance on latter day filing of a claim in the magistrates court- effectively a counter-claim

APPEARANCES:

This matter was heard and determined on the papers pursuant to s 32 of the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2009 (Qld) (QCAT Act).

REASONS FOR DECISION

1. The initiating application in this instance can reasonably be construed as a Minor Civil Debt application and if not then as a Trader claim.

2. The Respondent could just as easily have filed its own Minor Civil Claim in the Tribunal in response to the initiating application which was filed 10 July 2015. The two applications could then have been consolidated for the purpose of hearing.

3. Instead the Respondent files a response in the Tribunal on 10 August 2015 and the very same day files a Magistrates Court claim against the Applicant which in reality is its counter-claim. The Respondent then applies to the Tribunal two weeks later (24 August 2015) to transfer the application to the Magistrates Court. This application is within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal as is the quantum of the Respondent’s counter-claim as disclosed in the copy of the Magistrate’s Court claim annexed to its application for Transfer to the Magistrates Court. The difference in quantum between the Applicant’s claim in the Tribunal and the Respondent’s claim in the Magistrate’s court is only twenty or thirty dollars.

4. The train of events followed by the Respondent seems to be nothing more than an attempt to oust the jurisdiction of the Tribunal. The Applicant’s claim was initiated in the Tribunal and there is no valid reason for it not to be determined in the Tribunal. In particular the latter day filing of what is effectively a counter-claim in the Magistrates Court is not such a reason.