Wang v State of New South Wales (No 4)

THE COURT: On 28 July 2020 Ms Wang filed a notice of motion seeking to set aside the orders we made by our judgments of 20 February, 20 April and 20 July 2020 ([2020] NSWCA 21, 64 and 148).

Pursuant to the judgment of 20 July 2020 we made, inter alia, an order in the following terms:

On 28 July 2020 Ms Wang, in accordance with a direction made by the Registrar, filed a four page written submission purporting to show cause why her motion of 28 July should not be dismissed as vexatious and an abuse of process pursuant to Order 2 made on 20 July 2020.

Ms Wang’s submission recites background matters and repeats assertions with which we have previously dealt. It does not raise any additional matter of substance.

In so concluding we note that Ms Wang’s notice of motion asserts that there was a breach of Part 60 Division 4 of the Supreme Court Rules 1970 (NSW) involved in a person temporarily acting in the position of associate to one of the members of the Court certifying one of our earlier judgments. That complaint is misconceived. Pt 60 of the Supreme Court Rules is concerned with the role and powers of Associate Judges, not people acting as an associate to a judge of the Court. There is no, even arguable, error in a person who is acting as an associate to a judge of the Court certifying a copy of the Court’s reasons for judgment; see generally s 157 of the Evidence Act 1995 (NSW); Rule 36.2 of the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW) and Attorney General (NSW) v Markisic [2014] NSWSC 1596 at [81]-[87].

As with her motion which we dealt with in our judgment of 20 July, Ms Wang’s current motion constitutes an impermissible attempt by her to re-agitate matters previously determined.

She has not therefore shown cause why her motion should not be summarily dismissed as vexatious and an abuse of process. That course should thus be taken.

Accordingly, we order that Ms Wang’s notice of motion filed on 28 July 2020 be dismissed with costs.