Siemer v Auckland High Court

The High Court of New Zealand, Auckland Registry, was presented with an application from Vincent Ross Siemer against the Auckland High Court and Judge Matthew Geoffrey Palmer, who was acting as a judge of that Court. Siemer sought an order of mandamus, claiming that the Court and the judge had acted improperly in a previous case. Siemer also requested that the case be transferred directly to the Court of Appeal. The primary concern was whether Siemer's application was an abuse of the court process, particularly as he had been identified as a vexatious litigant in the past.

The court had to determine if Siemer's application was an abuse of process and whether he was indeed a vexatious litigant. This included evaluating whether Siemer's claims about procedural impropriety and breach of natural justice by Judge Palmer were justified, given that the Court of Appeal had already dismissed similar claims. Additionally, the court needed to decide if Siemer's application constituted an improper collateral attack on the Court of Appeal's decision.

The Court concluded that Siemer's application was an abuse of process. The substantive issues he raised had already been addressed and dismissed by the Court of Appeal, and Judge Palmer's subsequent refusal to recall his decision was consistent with the Court of Appeal's findings. Siemer's claims were essentially a rehash of previous arguments that had been rejected, and therefore, his current application was a clear attempt to circumvent the Court of Appeal's decision. The court found that Siemer's application was not only an abuse of process but also a misuse of the court's inherent jurisdiction and a breach of rule 5.35B of the High Court Rules 2016. Consequently, the court struck out the application and allowed Siemer to appeal the decision.

The court ordered the application to be struck out and granted Siemer the right to appeal the decision.