Land Enviro Corp Pty Ltd (In Liq) v HTT Huntley Heritage Pty Ltd (No 3)

THE COURT: On 15 December 2017, for reasons published on that day [1] , the Court ordered that a Notice of Motion filed on 5 September 2017 (the Recall Application) be dismissed with costs. By the Recall Application, the applicant sought an order that the orders of the Court made on 22 August 2017 be recalled and be set aside to enable further oral hearing on one of the questions disposed of by the orders of 22 August 2017. The orders of 22 August 2017 concerned the dismissal by the Registrar in the circumstances described in the Court’s reasons of 22 August 2017 [2] of an appeal to this Court by the applicant on the Recall Application (the Original Appeal).

By reason of an administrative oversight, the applicant was not notified of the day on which the reasons were to be published and did not become aware of the orders until sometime thereafter. Accordingly, the parties were informed on 21 December 2017 that the orders made on 15 December 2017 without notification would be rescinded and that new orders in the same terms would be made at the beginning of the new law term. In the meantime, however, the Court received a further communication from the applicant in the form of a letter dated 22 January 2018, by which the applicant seeks to re-agitate the matters raised and argued in support of the Recall Application. The terms of the letter of 22 January 2018 are somewhat intemperate and seek once more to re-agitate the question of whether or not the Original Appeal has good prospects of success.

In the circumstances, the Court does not propose to have regard to the substance of the letter of 22 January 2018. The appropriate course is that foreshadowed in the communication of 21 December 2017. That will afford to the applicant, if so advised, the opportunity to seek leave to appeal to the High Court of Australia from the orders originally made on 15 December 2017. The orders of the Court will therefore be as follows: