Schepis v Commonwealth of Australia

The appeal before the Court of Appeal concerned an attempt by the appellant, Schepis, to appeal a decision from the District Court against the Commonwealth of Australia. The central dispute revolved around whether the appeal was competent, specifically whether it met the jurisdictional threshold for an appeal as of right.

The primary legal issue before the Court of Appeal was whether the appeal from the District Court was brought as of right, which requires the matter at issue to amount to a value of $100,000 or more. The court had to determine if the appellant had sufficiently established this monetary threshold, and whether reliance on evidence not presented to the trial judge could satisfy this requirement. A secondary issue involved a motion to dismiss the appeal as frivolous and vexatious, and the proper procedure for dealing with such a motion.

Campbell JA reasoned that an affidavit filed in connection with the Notice of Appeal was insufficient to establish the requisite monetary threshold. The court held that reliance on evidence not before the trial judge, and which did not meet the tests for admission as fresh or further evidence on appeal, could not be used to establish the material facts necessary to found jurisdiction. Consequently, the appeal was dismissed as incompetent. The motion to dismiss the appeal as frivolous and vexatious was not granted on that specific ground, with the court indicating the proper course was to hear such an application at the time of the appeal hearing.

The Court of Appeal ordered that the appeal purportedly commenced by the Notice of Appeal filed on 22 August 2012 be dismissed as incompetent. The appellant was also ordered to pay the costs of the respondent for both the appeal and the Notice of Motion filed on 19 September 2012.