Metropolitan Petar v Mitreski

HIS HONOUR : In this matter there were interlocutory orders made by me on 3 July 2003 recording an agreement in essence between the first plaintiff and the sixth defendant that Father Zoran Alexovski should be brought from Macedonia to take the position of the priest at the St Petka Church (“the Church”). The evidence is that an employment agreement was entered into between the sixth defendant and Father Alexovski, who is, at last, on the point of arriving from Macedonia. There has been unclear correspondence from Father Alexovski as to his attitude toward the continuation of that agreement, but it is in my view arguable that the agreement is still on foot.

The evidence shows that the first plaintiff is requiring that Father Alexovski not officiate at services at the Church until its reconsecration, the necessity of which is contested among the parties. More importantly, he appears to have required Father Alexovski not to go to the Church at all and to be threatening to request or require Father Alexovski to officiate at the Frederick Street Church, which is not connected with the sixth defendant. He has also threatened to pay or have the Archdiocese pay Father Alexovski a stipend of $1,600 per month on his arrival in Australia, which is quite inconsistent with Father Alexovski's employment under the contract with the sixth defendant as a priest at the Church at approximately the same stipend.

This material seems to me to justify the grant ex parte for a short time of the injunction which will be contained in short minutes. The balance of convenience favours the grant of the injunction for that short time.