June Special Leave Rundown

Only three cases were given special leave to appeal yesterday, they were:

R v Lacey; ex parte Attorney-General (Qld) [2009] QCA 274

Leave was granted in Dionne Lacey’s appeal against sentence for the manslaughter of a man with his brother in the Gold Coast in 2007. The Court of Appeal disapproved of a previous line of authority that an appeal by the Attorney-General against sentence pursuant to s 669A of the Criminal Code 1899 (Qld) requires an appeal court to find an error in the decision of the sentencing judge before exercising the discretion afresh (in accordance with House v the King (2008) 236 CLR 510).

R v Roach [2009] QCA 360

This case considers whether Qld legislation which allows for admission of evidence of history of a domestic relationship is subject to the test set out in Pfennig v The Queen (1995) 182 CLR 461, if it discloses previous criminal acts (i.e. if it is used for a propensity purpose).

State of Queensland v Springfield Land Corporation (No 2) P/L [2009] QCA 381

This case relates to the acquisition of land by the State of Queensland. The amount of compensation for the acquisition was referred to arbitration. The primary issue was whether the arbitrator erred in his approach to determining the purpose of the acquisition, and whether such a finding was an error of law which is susceptible to appeal in the Supreme Court under the Commercial Arbitration Act 1990 (Qld).


[[UPDATE: I forgot to include this earlier:

Notable cases for which leave was refused

R v Ogawa [2009] QCA 307: this is not really a notable case, but for practitioners in Queensland, I’m sure most of you are aware of the continuing attempts by PhD student and Associate Law Lecturer, Megumi Ogawa to have her PhD accepted by Melbourne University. She is known for her ferocious advocacy style as a self represented litigant as well as for her contempt for court staff. This has led her to charges for threatening Federal Court staff as well as a contempt charge. Some papers have reported that, in the heat of one altercation with Court officials, she displayed her dissatisfaction with the proceedings by mooning the Judge. An Austlii search of ‘Megumi AND Ogawa’ provides no less than 48 hits, only two of which relate to her academic work. The High Court yesterday refused special leave in relation to the most recent of these decisions. ]]