Seek Justice Pty Ltd v Blue Mountains City Council

Seek Justice Pty Ltd (the applicant) sought an urgent injunction from the Court of Appeal of New South Wales to restrain the holding of a trail running event in the Blue Mountains, scheduled to commence the following day. The application was made pending an appeal against a decision of the primary judge who had refused the applicant’s earlier application for similar relief. The second respondent, the organiser of the event, opposed the application.

The central legal issue before the Court of Appeal was whether it should grant an interlocutory injunction to restrain the event, given that the primary judge had already considered and rejected a similar application. This required the Court to assess whether the applicant had demonstrated a sufficient basis to depart from the primary judge's assessment of the balance of convenience.

Macfarlan JA found that the primary judge had thoroughly considered the circumstances of the proposed event and had carefully weighed the various factors relevant to the balance of convenience. His Honour concluded that the applicant had failed to present any new reasons or arguments that would justify a different conclusion being reached on appeal. Consequently, the application for an injunction was rejected.

The Court of Appeal ordered that the application for an injunction be refused and that the applicant pay the second respondent's costs of the application. The first respondent indicated its submission to the orders of the Court.