CONTRACTS – employment contract – implied term of mutual trust and confidence and/or good faith discussed – incorporation of employer’s policies and procedures discussed – whether employment of employee via a subsidiary company was a sham

DEFAMATION – qualified privilege – reply to attack

HUMAN RIGHTS – discrimination – allegations of sexual harassment – jurisdiction of the Federal Court – some alleged conduct occurred in New Zealand – whether Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) has extraterritorial effect – vicarious liability – workplace participant

TORTS – injurious falsehood – whether damage to trade or business of an employee

CRIMINAL LAW – Applications for leave to appeal from interlocutory decision pursuant to s 295 Criminal Procedure Act 2009 – Whether trial judge erred in exercising his discretion under s 138 of the Evidence Act 2008 – Whether motor vehicle seized illegally – Whether order for search of motor vehicle beyond power and in contravention of Australian law – Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981, ss 81 and 82 – Whether error in finding that failure by police officer properly to swear affidavit in support of the search warrant was not a deliberate or reckless act – Whether error in finding that alteration of Result of Search document by police officer was of little consequence – Whether error in admitting evidence – Effect of Evidence (Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment (Affidavits) Act 2012 – Applications for leave dismissed.

CRIMINAL LAW – murder trial – application for warnings under s.165 Evidence Act 1995 – three persons in house: the Accused, the deceased and the principal Crown witness – deceased stabbed – defence case that principal Crown witness must have been the killer – s.165(1)(d) unreliability direction sought – further s.165 unreliability direction sought based upon intoxication of principal Crown witness – whether matters which might adversely affect reliability of evidence of Crown witness would readily be understood and appreciated by jury – whether jury might be misled in making assessment or evaluation of evidence without s.165 warning – s.165 warnings declined

RESTRICTIVE COVENANTS ― Section 84(1) Property Law Act 1958 – Application to modify single dwelling covenant ― Applicable legal principles ― Construction of “obsolescence” and “substantial injury” ― Estoppel by reason of conduct of previous registered proprietor of the defendant’s land.

ENVIRONMENTAL LAW – Proposed logging at three coupes near Toolangi – Application for permanent injunction restraining logging – Whether proposed coupes contain Leadbeater’s Possum zone 1A habitat – Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act Action Statement – Central Highlands Forest Management Plan – Construction of relevant management prescription – Hollow-bearing tree means mature or senescing tree containing hollows – No evidence that proposed coupes contain sufficient density of hollow-bearing trees to constitute zone 1A – Obligation to comply with precautionary principle – No threat of serious or irreversible damage – Proposed adaptive management measures not proportionate to threat – Application dismissed – Sections 3, 4, and 22 Forests Act 1958; ss 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, and 31 Conservation Forests and Lands Act 1987; ss 1, 4, 5, 6, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 37, 38, 39, 40, 43, 44, and 45 Sustainable Forests (Timber) 2004; ss 1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 11, 17, 19, and 20 Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 – Environment East Gippsland Inc v VicForests [2010] VSC 335 – Telstra Corporation Limited v Hornsby Shire Council [2006] NSWLEC 133; (2006) 67 NSWLR 256.

TORTS – negligence – medical negligence – whether general practitioner made a wrong diagnosis – a lesion on the foot diagnosed as a plantar wart – whether there was a misdiagnosis of the lesion – whether it was an acral lentiginous melanoma (ALM) – whether there was failure to consider ALM as a differential diagnosis – whether there was failure to refer the plaintiff for specialist investigation – whether there was a failure to perform a punch biopsy of the lesion – plaintiff suffered a plantar wart and also had an ALM – duty of care owed – negligence established – whether there would have been a different outcome if ALM had been earlier treated – causation not established – section 50 of the Civil Liability Act – judgment for defendant – costs

EVIDENCE – admissibility and relevance – opinion evidence – medical evidence – objections to expert evidence

EVIDENCE – witnesses – credit – credibility of evidence – reliability of evidence

PROFESSIONAL LIABILITY – solicitors – property proceeding in Family Court of Australia – settled at door of court on terms overly generous to wife – action by husband for damages for lost opportunity – valuation, taxation and other evidence not prepared in time for hearing – instructions taken and acted on from client lacking mental capacity – whether solicitors should have known – whether breach of duty of care – whether breach of fiduciary duty – whether coercion – pre-hearing representations – whether in trade or commerce – whether misleading and deceptive conduct – advocates’ immunity – whether applicable – assessment of damages for lost opportunity – notional trial in Family Court – whether evidence of subsequent facts admissible – apportionment of damages between concurrent wrongdoers – rule in Jones v Dunkel – husband’s senior counsel not called by solicitor – whether senior counsel in camp of solicitor – affidavit of husband’s deceased father – whether admissible hearsay evidence – Fair Trading Act 1985 (Vic), s 9(1) – Wrongs Act 1958 (Vic), pt IVAA – Evidence Act 2005 (Vic), s 135.

MIGRATION – application for review required by s 347(1)(a) of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) to be made in the approved form – two approved forms, one for persons in immigration detention and one for persons not in immigration detention – whether application valid if wrong approved form used – whether nomination of person made in wrong approved form as applicant’s authorised recipient of documents under s 379G authorised Migration Review Tribunal to give that person invitation to applicant to appear at hearing under s 360A(2)(a) – whether earlier nomination of authorised recipient on wrong approved form superseded by later inconsistent nomination on correct approved from – whether Tribunal committed jurisdictional error

CRIMINAL LAW – Application to change pleas of guilty – Evidence illegally obtained as search warrant affidavits not sworn – Principles applicable on applications to change plea – Admissibility of illegally obtained evidence – Application refused.

TAXATION – notices to furnish information issued by Deputy Commissioner pursuant to s 264(1)(a) of Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (Cth) – notices directed to Australian bank – information sought in notices provided to bank from subsidiary in Vanuatu – information stored electronically in Australia – whether notices invalid – whether notices require bank to breach common law and statutory confidentiality obligations under Vanuatu law – whether s 264 authorises Commissioner to issue notices that infringe foreign sovereignty – whether notices were issued for a proper purpose – whether notices are uncertain – whether bank “not capable of complying” with notices within meaning of s 8C(1B) of Taxation Administration Act 1953 (Cth) – application dismissed