Fang v Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment

The Court of Appeal of New Zealand heard an application for review by Mingbo Fang against the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. This was in relation to decisions made by the President of the Court regarding the allocation of cases to a full court and the allocation of hearing time. Fang's application was supported by Defang Dong, while Zhiwei Li opposed it. The Court of Appeal declined the application for review and ordered Fang and Dong to pay costs to the Ministry.

The central legal issue in this case was whether the Court of Appeal had jurisdiction to review the President's decision to not allocate the appeals to a full court and to set aside one day for hearing the appeals. The Court of Appeal doubted the existence of such jurisdiction, considering the President's decision to be more of an internal administrative decision rather than an incidental order or direction that could be reviewed. Additionally, the Court found that the review jurisdiction under section 61A(2) of the Judicature Act was limited to reviewing incidental orders or directions in civil matters made by any judge sitting in chambers.

Furthermore, the Court found that the merits of the review application failed, as the President's decision was not a breach of natural justice, and the appeals were not of sufficient significance to warrant the consideration of a full court. The Court also upheld the President's direction to allocate one day for hearing the appeals, finding it to be sufficient for the narrow issue of statutory interpretation involved in the appeals.

In conclusion, the Court of Appeal declined the application for review and upheld the President's directions. The Court ordered Fang and Dong to pay the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment one set of costs as for a standard leave application on a band A basis and usual disbursements.