Sydney Valve & Fittings Pty Limited & Anor v Crawford Fitting Company

Sydney Valve & Fittings Pty Limited and Victoria Fittings & Valves Pty Company, along with Nupro Company, Cajon Company, and Sno-Trik Company, were the applicants seeking special leave to appeal to the High Court of Australia. They were in dispute with Crawford Fitting Company and Whitey Company, the respondents. The core of the dispute concerned the termination of contracts that had no fixed duration and lacked express provisions for termination.

The legal issues before the High Court involved determining the principles governing the termination of such indefinite contracts. Specifically, the applicants argued that the Court of Appeal had introduced novel reasoning, unsupported by existing Australian authority, regarding the concept of "reasonableness" in notice periods for termination. This included a potential third question: whether some contracts are terminable only after a reasonable time has elapsed, followed by a period of reasonable notice.

The applicants contended that the Court of Appeal's reasoning, which appeared to import distinctions from American law, was contrary to established principles and wrongly applied. They argued that while the issue of contract termination without fixed duration was of significant commercial importance due to the commonality of such agreements, the Court of Appeal's approach to the reasonableness of notice periods was flawed. The applicants sought special leave to appeal on the grounds of the importance of the question, the novelty and lack of authority for the Court of Appeal's reasoning, and its perceived incorrectness in principle.