A Federal Court judge has unleashed on his colleague over a failure to deliver a judgment for nearly two and a half years.
Justice Ian Jackman, whose brother is Hollywood star Hugh Jackman, wrote a blistering judgment in which he criticised outgoing Justice Kathleen Farrell over her “inability” and “unwillingness” to finalise the contractual matter.
The tone of the judgment reportedly caught Chief Justice Debra Mortimer by surprise and a letter was sent to all judges noting the need for timely judgments but also reminding the justices to remain collegial, according to a report in the Australian Financial Review.
On Friday, Justice Jackman’s judgment on a dispute over a foreign student program was published.
The matter had been reallocated to Justice Jackman from Justice Farrell as she is leaving the court on August 1.
Justice Jackman noted that the proceedings had been heard by Justice Farrell on numerous dates in 2020.
“The references in that sentence to “2020” are not a misprint,” he noted.
“Regrettably, Farrell J has not delivered judgment,” he continued.
“The delay in giving judgment is all the more glaring in light of the fact that Farrell J made freezing orders against the first and second defendants on 27 September 2017, which were subsequently varied but remain in place.”
On the issue of whether the parties should be granted a costs certificate — which would foot the taxpayer with the bill for the matter - Justice Jackman pointed out that the relevant section of the Federal Proceedings (Costs) Act 1981 (Cth) can be applied when proceedings are aborted when a judicial officer “dies, resigns, or is removed or dismissed from, his or her office, suffers a protracted illness or otherwise becomes unable to continue with, or to give judgment in, the proceedings.”
He stated, “Her Honour has resigned her office, but the resignation will not be effective until 1 August 2023. As far as the evidence indicates, Farrell J has not suffered a protracted illness or otherwise become unable to continue with, or to give judgment in, the proceedings. I am not aware of any medical evidence to that effect.”
He continued, “The problem does not appear from the evidence to be one of inability, to which subs 10(2) is directed, except perhaps in a euphemistic sense of ‘inability’. Rather, the problem seems to be one of unwillingness to discharge the judicial function of giving judgment in the proceedings.”
He later stated, “While Farrell J is not one to rush to judgment, the evidence does not indicate any acceptable reason why her Honour could not have given judgment by 1 August 2023, even if her Honour did not begin the task until 30 June 2023.”
Justice Jackman added that the Chief Justice had apologised to the parties on behalf of the court, while also adding his own apology.
It took Justice Jackman less than one month to finalise the case, and he ruled there was no enforceable contract between Smart Education Program or its prospective Chinese business partner Conglin.
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