SANKARARAMALINGAM v Infotech PROFESSIONALS Pty Ltd

In the Federal Circuit Court, Judge Smith considered an application by Infotech Professionals Pty Ltd to summarily dismiss proceedings brought by Sankararamalingam. The core of the dispute involved whether Sankararamalingam had a reasonable prospect of successfully prosecuting his claim.

The court was required to determine the appropriate test for summarily dismissing proceedings under rule 13.10 of the Federal Circuit Court Rules 2001 (Cth) and section 17A of the Federal Circuit Court of Australia Act 1999 (Cth). This involved considering the threshold for demonstrating that a party has "no reasonable prospect of successfully prosecuting" a proceeding.

Judge Smith applied the principles established by the High Court in cases such as *Spencer v Commonwealth of Australia*, *Fancourt v Mercantile Credits Ltd*, and *Batistatos v Roads and Traffic Authority (NSW)*. The court emphasised that powers to summarily terminate proceedings must be exercised with great care and only when there is no real question to be tried. The test requires a high degree of certainty about the ultimate outcome if the case were allowed to proceed to trial, and while the prospect of success need not be hopeless or bound to fail, it must be more than merely fanciful.