Sandvik Mining and Construction Australia Pty Ltd v Fisher

Sandvik Mining and Construction Australia Pty Ltd filed an application for an interlocutory injunction against Fisher, seeking to restrain Fisher from enforcing a decision made under the Construction Contracts Act 2004 (WA). The case was heard in the Supreme Court of Western Australia. The primary legal issue the court had to resolve was whether enforcing an allegedly "invalid" determination under the Act would constitute a jurisdictional error, and if so, whether such an error would render the decision void or simply ineffective. Sandvik argued that enforcing the determination would amount to an abuse of the enforcement process and would interfere with the judicial review proceedings.

The court considered the nature of jurisdictional errors and whether they render a decision null and void or merely ineffective. The court referred to previous cases, including Hossain v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, where it was held that a decision made outside jurisdiction is not necessarily a nullity but may still have some status in law. The court also noted that while a decision made outside jurisdiction is a decision in fact which may be regarded as 'no decision at all' for the purposes of the law, it is not inherently a nullity. The court concluded that enforcing such a determination does not necessarily constitute an abuse of the court process, provided that the jurisdictional error is addressed in the judicial review proceedings.

The court determined that enforcing the allegedly "invalid" determination did not amount to a jurisdictional error that would render the decision void. Instead, the court held that the determination had some status in law and could be enforced pending the outcome of the judicial review. The court thus denied the application for an interlocutory injunction. The final orders of the court are yet to be determined and will be made at a later date.