Zepinic v Health Care Complaints Commission (No 2)

In *Zepinic v Health Care Complaints Commission (No 2)*, the applicant, Dr Zepinic, sought to set aside a previous judgment of the Court of Appeal of New South Wales. The Court of Appeal, constituted by Macfarlan and McCallum JJA, considered a motion filed by Dr Zepinic on 22 July 2020, which sought to set aside an earlier decision refusing him leave to appeal.

The central legal issue before the Court was whether there were sufficient grounds to permit Dr Zepinic to make a further application for leave to appeal, notwithstanding the prior refusal. This involved considering whether the arguments advanced by the applicant were meritorious or if they had already been addressed by the Court, or if the opportunity to raise them had been missed. The Court also had to weigh the applicant's request against the public interest in the finality of litigation.

The Court reasoned that the arguments presented by Dr Zepinic were plainly groundless. It found that these arguments had either been previously considered and rejected by the Court or had not been raised on the prior occasion when the applicant had the opportunity to do so. In light of the lack of any change in circumstances or other good reason to depart from the principle of finality, the Court concluded that it would not permit a further leave application to be made.

Consequently, the Court dismissed Dr Zepinic’s notice of motion filed on 22 July 2020, and ordered that he pay the costs of the proceedings.