Tanamerah Estates Pty Ltd v Tibra Capital Pty Ltd

Tanamerah Estates Pty Ltd and others (the applicants) sought to set aside a judgment obtained by Tibra Capital Pty Ltd (the respondent). The applicants also sought to re-open a decision that had dismissed their application for leave to appeal. The proceedings were before the Court of Appeal of New South Wales.

The primary legal issues before the Court of Appeal were whether the judgment had been given irregularly, illegally, or against good faith, and whether the Court had misapprehended facts or law in dismissing the application for leave to appeal. A further issue concerned whether a corporate plaintiff could commence or carry on proceedings in the Supreme Court by a director who was not also a plaintiff in those proceedings, pursuant to rules 7.1 and 7.2 of the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 1999 (NSW).

The Court of Appeal dismissed the applicants' applications. It found no basis to conclude that the judgment had been obtained irregularly, illegally, or against good faith, nor that there had been any misapprehension of fact or law in the earlier dismissal of the leave to appeal application. The Court also determined that a director of a corporate plaintiff, who was not a party to the proceedings, could not represent the company in commencing or carrying on those proceedings.

Consequently, the Court of Appeal ordered the dismissal of the applicants’ notices of motion and ordered the applicants to pay the respondent’s costs of the motions.