The Owners - Strata Plan No 87231 v 3A Composites GmbH

The Owners - Strata Plan No 87231 filed a claim against 3A Composites GmbH, a German corporation, for damages resulting from defective construction work. The dispute was heard in the Federal Court of Australia. The primary legal issues in this case were whether the applicant had a prima facie case for the relief claimed and whether the respondent’s conduct occurred within Australia. Additionally, the court had to decide whether the application to serve the originating application outside Australia was appropriate under the Federal Court Rules 2011.

The court found that the applicant had satisfied the conditions for leave to serve the respondent in Germany in accordance with the Hague Convention. The affidavit of Mr Petrovski established that Germany was a party to the Hague Convention and that the proposed method of service, which included translating the relevant documents into German, was permitted by the Convention. The court determined that the proceeding was of a kind mentioned in Federal Court Rules 2011, r 10.42, and that service would be in accordance with Art 5 of the Convention on the Service of Broader Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters done at the Hague on 15 November 1965. Consequently, the court granted the applicant’s application for leave to serve the originating application and statement of claim on the German corporation.

The court made several orders, including granting leave to serve the amended originating application and statement of claim on the respondent in Germany, specifying the method of service in accordance with the Hague Convention, reserving costs, and listing the matter for a Case Management Hearing on 2 May 2019. The entry of orders was dealt with in Rule 39.32 of the Federal Court Rules 2011.