Siemer v Registrar of the Supreme Court

The High Court of New Zealand was presented with a judicial review application by Jane Siemer against the Registrar of the Supreme Court, seeking to challenge the Registrar’s decision to refuse to waive the filing fee for an application for leave to appeal. The case involved complex litigation between Mrs Siemer, the District Court at North Shore, and the Disputes Tribunal at North Shore, with Mrs Siemer having been previously subject to a vexatious litigant order. The Registrar declined to waive the filing fee, and Mrs Siemer sought review of this decision under the Senior Courts Act 2016. The Court of Appeal had previously declined to review the decision of the Deputy Registrar of the Court of Appeal, and the Registrar of the Supreme Court also declined to review this decision.

The legal issues before the Court included whether the proceedings constituted an abuse of process, the proper interpretation of section 82 of the Senior Courts Act 2016, and the applicability of judicial review to decisions regarding the waiver of filing fees. The Court examined the prescribed rules governing the waiver of filing fees and the established principles limiting the right to judicial review of decisions made by Registrars and Judges. It found that the proposed judicial review proceedings were abusive, as they contested earlier binding decisions of the Supreme Court, which were correctly interpreted. The Court held that the self-contained system for dealing with the waiver of filing fees left no room for judicial review of these decisions. The proceedings were also characterised by circularity, as they sought to challenge a peripheral procedural requirement rather than a substantive appeal.

Cooke J concluded that the proposed proceedings were an abuse of process and struck them out under rule 5.35B of the High Court Rules 2016. The Court noted that Mrs Siemer had the right to appeal against this decision.