State of New South Wales v Konneh

The State of New South Wales sought leave to appeal from a decision of the primary judge in proceedings brought by Mr. Konneh, both on his own behalf and as a representative party. Mr. Konneh's claim sought damages for wrongful arrest, false imprisonment, and assault. The dispute before the primary judge concerned a motion to strike out parts of Mr. Konneh's pleading, specifically those alleging a special rule of attribution of knowledge applicable to the New South Wales Police Force. These allegations contended that the arresting police officers knew or ought to have known of the unreliability of the COPS computer system, and therefore should have known that the arrests were not justified.

The legal issues before the Court of Appeal were whether the primary judge erred in exercising their discretion by refusing to strike out parts of the pleading. The Court was required to determine if there was any arguable error in the primary judge's discretionary decision, which related to matters of practice and procedure. The Court also considered whether granting leave to appeal would serve the interests of justice, particularly in light of the potential for further delay to the hearing of the substantive proceedings.

Macfarlan and Ward JJA found no arguable error in the primary judge's exercise of discretion. They reasoned that the primary judge's decision was a discretionary one concerning practice and procedure, and that the threshold for granting leave to appeal on such matters was high. The Court concluded that granting leave to appeal would likely cause further delay to the hearing of the case at first instance, which was not in the interests of justice.

Consequently, the application for leave to appeal was dismissed with costs.