Zetta Jet Pte. Ltd v The Ship "Dragon Pearl"

Zetta Jet Pte. Ltd was the plaintiff and The Ship "Dragon Pearl" the defendant in a proceeding brought in the Federal Court of Australia. The plaintiff sought to establish a proprietary maritime claim to the vessel, contending that it had a trust interest in the vessel arising from payments made towards the vessel's purchase price. The defendant opposed the claim, contending that the funds used to make the payments did not originate from the plaintiff. The plaintiff applied for an adjournment of the hearing and for the Court to permit evidence to be given by two witnesses from Singapore by way of letter of request. The defendant opposed both applications.
The Court was required to decide whether the plaintiff's application for an adjournment should be granted, and whether the plaintiff's application to permit evidence to be given by way of letter of request should be granted. The Court found that the plaintiff's application for an adjournment was brought late, without an adequate explanation and caused significant delay and prejudice to the defendant. The Court also found that it was not appropriate to permit evidence to be given by letter of request because of the time that it would take to organise, the uncertainty of the procedure and the difficulties of cross-examining witnesses in that way.

The Court dismissed the plaintiff's amended interlocutory application, set aside the writ and arrest warrant, ordered the plaintiff to pay the defendant's costs on a party-party basis until 22 November 2017 and on an indemnity basis thereafter, granted the defendant leave to withdraw its interlocutory application without order as to costs, dismissed the proceeding and stayed certain orders for 7 days pending any application for leave to appeal.