Ren v Jiang

This matter concerned an appeal before Basten JA, involving the first and second appellants and the first and second respondents. The dispute centred on applications relating to security for costs and a notice to produce, arising from earlier decisions and orders made by Black J. The appellants sought leave to appeal certain orders, while the respondents sought to oppose this and had issued a notice to produce.

The court was required to determine the timing of the hearing of various motions and the conditions under which security for costs would be provided by the appellants. A key issue was the existence of bankruptcy proceedings against the appellants and how this impacted the court's approach to the applications before it, particularly in the absence of any question of principle being raised.

Basten JA ordered that the parties' respective notices of motion be stood over to a later date. Crucially, the court ordered the appellants to pay $16,000 into court as security for the respondents' costs of opposing the appellants' application for leave under s 471B. This order was made subject to an agreement between the parties: if the first appellant received $500,000 from a Mr Guo Wen Qi by 5 August 2013, he would notify the respondents of the receipt and pay $450,000 into court within 14 days, to be held pending the outcome of all appeals and proceedings. A further $50,000 was to be paid into an interest-bearing account as security for costs. If these conditions were not met, the respondents' motion and the appellants' motion to set aside the notice to produce were to be relisted. If the conditions were met, the respondents' motion would be dismissed, the notice to produce set aside, and the appellants would pay the respondents' costs of their motion. The court also directed that any summons seeking leave to appeal Black J's orders be listed for first return on 26 August 2013 and vacated a prior directions hearing.