Practice and procedure - Civil Procedure Act reforms - Advancing interests of proper administration of justice - Overarching purpose - Summary judgment - Relaxation of pre-existing principles - No real prospect of success test - Plaintiff asserting rights on basis of untenable interpretation of statutory provisions - Facts not in issue - Full hearing on merits not required - "Just, efficient, timely and cost-effective resolution of the real issues in dispute" - Civil Procedure Act 2010 (No 47) ss 63 64 - Sale of Land Act 1962 (No 6975) ss 29A 29O

Sale of land - Cash contract - Purchaser's default - Contract varied - Further deposit required - Contingent liability to make further payment - Land subject to mortgage - Mortgage not discharged within 90 days - Whether cash contract became a terms contract on negotiated variation - Whether contract voidable by defaulting purchaser - "Terms contract" - Sale of Land Act 1962 (No 6975) ss 29A 29O

Criminal law - Sentencing - Director's appeal - Manifest inadequacy - Aggravated burglary, common law assault and breach of intervention order - Considerations relevant to punishing breach of intervention orders - Breach of parole - Interaction of s 16(3B) of Sentencing Act 1991 and totality principle - Sentencing Act 1991 (No 49) s 16(3B).

Criminal law - Sentencing - Youthful offenders - Principles - Large number of serious crimes over short period - Armed robbery - Intentionally causing serious injury - Reduction in mitigating effects of youth as seriousness of offences increased - Double punishment - Totality - Just measure that is no more than necessary - Proportionality - Verdins principles eschewed on plea - No obligation on sentencing judge to consider - Appeals allowed.

Criminal law - Rape - Accused a member of police force - Jury question as to whether accused prevented from calling character witnesses - Application for discharge of jury refused - Jury direction - Whether adequate - Whether conviction unsafe and unsatisfactory.

Confidential information - Concept or idea - Equity - Confidence - Breach - Model for restructuring and financing long-term asset leases - Statement of claim - Adequacy - Amendment - Whether confidential information properly identified - Knowing assistance in breach.

Practice and procedure - Summary judgment - Whether cause of action disclosed - Whether no real prospect of success - Whether matter should proceed to trial - Conflation of contest over the adequacy of proposed pleading and prospects of success at trial - Civil Procedure Act 2010 (No 47) ss 63 64 - Supreme Court (General Civil Procedure) Rules 2005 r 23.01

Criminal law - Sentencing - Commonwealth offences - Money laundering - Dealing with proceeds of illegal narcotics activities - Conspiracy - Aggregation provisions - Applicability - Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) ss 11.5 11.5(7A) 11.5(7) 11.6.

Criminal law - Sentencing - Mandatory statutory criteria - Cultural background of accused - Family-operated enterprise - Proceeds of illegal narcotics activities transferred within Australia and to Vietnam - Vietnamese cultural norms - Daughter's filial duty - Crimes Act 1914 (Cth) s 16A(2)(m).

Criminal law - Sentencing - Co-operation with authorities after sentence - Parity principle - Procedural fairness - Misapprehension of counsel's submission.

Criminal law - Sentencing - Automatic forfeiture of property - Co-operation with law enforcement authorities - Whether such conduct - Whether mitigating factor - Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (Cth) s 320.

Criminal law - Confiscation - Restraining order - Exclusion order - Entitlement to make application - Prior to conviction - Following conviction - Time limits - Confiscation Act 1997 (No 108) ss 20 35

Criminal law - Pleas of guilty - Application to change pleas - Principles - Drug trafficking offences - Search warrants - Validity - Affidavits supporting warrants not sworn - Evidence illegally obtained - Admissibility - Statutory test - Desirability of admitting evidence - Must outweigh undesirability of admitting evidence obtained that way - Criteria - Onus of establishing miscarriage of justice - Erroneous belief that evidence obtained by search warrants was admissible - No evidence of why accused pleaded guilty - Clear case in favour of admissibility - Application refused - Evidence (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1958 (No 6246) s 165 - Evidence Act 2008 (No 47) s 138 - Evidence (Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment (Affidavits) Act 2012 (No 4)

Criminal law - Defensive homicide - Tendency evidence - Probative on count of murder and lesser alternative of defensive homicide - Probative value as to objective dimension of self-defence belief - Credibility of accused - Crimes Act 1958 (No 6231) ss 9AC 9AD - Evidence Act 2008 (No 47) ss 97 101.

Criminal law - Sentence - Defensive homicide - Head sentence of 12 years' imprisonment and non-parole period of eight years not manifestly excessive.

Building contracts - Domestic building contracts - Disputes - Legislative prohibition on arbitration of disputes - Construction of underground water tank on residential property - Builder purporting to refer dispute to arbitration - Validity - Whether building permit required - Whether water tank was class 10b structure under Building Code of Australia - Approach to classification of building and structure - No permit required - Reference of dispute to arbitration invalid - "Domestic building contract" - "Structure" - Domestic Building Contracts Act 1995 (No 91) ss 3 4 5(1) 14 54 - Building Act 1993 (No 126) ss 3 16 - Building Regulations 2006 (No 68) reg 1801 - Building Code of Australia cll 1.3.2 1.3.3.

Practice and procedure - Suppression order - Open justice principle - Necessity test - Family trust - Dispute about beneficial interests in loan accounts - Application for declaratory relief - Pending related Family Court proceedings - Alleged misreporting of pending Supreme Court proceeding - Non-publication order sought commensurate and co-extensive with statutory restriction on publication in Family Court proceeding - Protection of welfare of children - Parity between confidentiality orders in separate proceedings - Whether making of order necessary to prevent prejudice to proper administration of justice or to prevent endangering physical safety of any person - Order only to be made in exceptional circumstances - Cogent and probative evidence required - Supreme Court Act 1986 (No 110) ss 18 19 - Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) s 121 - Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (No 43) ss 17 24

Practice and procedure - Appeal - Leave to intervene - Friend of the court - Considerations relevant to grant of leave - Challenge to coroner's rulings at inquest - Attorney-General applying to intervene - Status as minister responsible for administration of Coroners Act 2008 - No basis for claim of specialist expertise - No suggestion parties unable or unwilling to adequately protect own interests or assist the court - Leave refused.

Criminal law - Commonwealth drug offences - Border-controlled drug - 3,4methylenedioxymethamphetamine ("MDMA") - Commercial quantity - Importation - Attempted trafficking - Conspiracy - Evidence - Admissibility - Hearsay - Telephone intercepts - Statements made by third person co-accused in absence of accused - Circumstantial evidence - Evidence of agreement - Co-conspirators' principle - Jury directions - Criminal Code 1995 (Cth) ss 11.1 302.2 307.1

Criminal law - Evidence - Accused able to speak English - Accused giving evidence in foreign language through interpreter - Prosecutor commenting to jury that accused had abused use of interpreter - Credit - Jury entitled to apply common sense - Jury directions - No miscarriage of justice.

Criminal law - Sentencing - Parity - Co-offender - Manifest disparity - Totality - Judge not required to take account of period of imprisonment served in Canada for unrelated offences.

Negligence - Occupier's liability - Asbestos cement sheet manufacturing plant - Duty of care - Existence and scope - Known risk of asbestos causing mesothelioma - Magnitude of risk - Occasional visitor - Jury directions - Breach of duty - Causation - Distinction between risk and causation.

Evidence - Expert evidence - Alleged exposure to asbestos fibres - Mesothelioma - Contribution of cumulative exposure to asbestos - Whether inference of fact concerning contraction of disease reasonably open to jury - Evidence Act 2008 (No 47) s 80(a).

Damages - Negligence - Occupier's liability - Damages for pain and suffering - Whether amount awarded by jury excessive - Awards previously made in like cases - Wrongs Act 1958 (No 6420) ss 28G 28HA - Wrongs (Part VB) (Dust and Tobacco Related Claims) Regulations 2006 (No 47).

Practice and procedure - Jury verdict - Motion for judgment non obstante veredicto - Whether sufficient evidence of causation to support verdict - Whether judge erred in dismissing application.

Administrative law - Judicial review - Reasons - Adequacy - Statutory obligation - Path of reasoning from evidence to facts to conclusion - Conflicting medical opinions - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) s 68

Administrative law - Judicial review - Remedies - Availability - Certiorari - Error of law on face of record - Mandamus - Accident compensation - Medical panel opinion - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) s 45

Estoppel - Issue estoppel - Workers compensation - Entitlement - Medical or like expenses - Claim for declarations - Medical panel - Opinion - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 45(1) 99

Negligence - Duty of care - Nature and extent - Risk of violent attack by third party - Employee - Employer providing cafeteria services to university - University directing cafeteria employee as to aspects of her work - Employee using university car-park - Employee attacked walking to car-park at night at end of working day - Poorly lit pathway - Recent reports of man loitering in vicinity of pathway - University's security services contractor aware of reports - Whether university owed duty to cafeteria employee - No duty as occupier - University's exclusive management and control of campus - University's statutory obligations as person having management and control of workplace to provide means of leaving workplace without risks to health - Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (No 107) s 26

Criminal law - Trial - Alternative verdicts - Jury required to acquit on principal count before delivering verdict on alternative count - No restriction on jury's consideration of alternative counts before verdict - Offence of sexual penetration of child under 16 not statutory alternative to offence of rape - Necessary to be alleged as separate count - Sexual penetration of child under 16 to be treated in the same way as statutory alternatives for purposes of law governing delivery of alternative verdicts - When appropriate to plead sexual penetration as an alternative to rape.

Criminal law - Trial - Fair trial - Jury - Deliberation - Questions for trial judge - Jury note revealing proposed numerical vote in favour of conviction or acquittal - Judge not informing counsel of contents of jury note - Denial of procedural fairness - Appeal - Trial may miscarry where jury left in state of uncertainty or confusion - Crimes Act 1958 (No 6231) ss 38 45 425(1) - Criminal Procedure Act 2009 (No 7) s 239(1)

Town and country planning - Planning permit - Period of operation - Extension of time - Time for making application for extension - Expiry of permit - Planning authority refusing to accept application made after expiry of permit - "May ask" - Planning and Environment Act 1987 (No 45) s 69(1)

Administrative law - Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal - Jurisdiction to disregard non-compliance with time limit - Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 1998 (No 53) Sch 1 cl 62

Criminal law - Appeal - Sentence - General deterrence - Occupational health and safety - Recklessly engaging in conduct placing person at workplace in danger of serious injury - Elements of offence - Foresight of probable danger of serious injury not foresight of probability of serious injury - Fatality - Employee required to drive truck with defective brakes - Defendant's culpability very high - Employer company fined $750,000 - Appeal dismissed - Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (No 107) s 32

Criminal law - Appeal - Sentence - Occupational health and safety - Duty to provide and maintain safe workplace - Breach - Company - Director - Company's breaches attributable to director's failure to take reasonable care - Director fined $120,000 - Sentence not manifestly excessive - Appeal dismissed - Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (No 107) ss 21 144(1)

Judgments, orders and declarations - Supreme Court - Execution - Sheriff - Duties - Warrant of seizure and sale - Auction sale of real estate without reserve - Validity - Terms of order authorising sale - Inherent jurisdiction to set aside sale - Former common law writs - Fieri facias - Venditioni exponas - Continuing applicability of common law principles to statutory warrant - Sale of dwelling for $1000 - Judgment debtor's substantial equity - Whether bid reasonable - Sheriff's statutory immunity - Preconditions - Sale set aside - Sheriff Act 2009 (No 9) ss 7 13 24 25 - Supreme Court (General Civil Procedure) Rules 2005 r 66

Equity - Unconscionable conduct - Special disability - Categories - Constitutional - Situational - Alleged difficulty with English language - Owner of real estate subject to compulsory sale by sheriff - Owner not under relevant disability - Purchaser not taking unconscientious advantage of execution debtor's disability - Sale not liable to be set aside in equity.

Criminal law - Procedure - Interlocutory appeal - Convictions prior to commencement of Criminal Procedure Act 2009 (CPA) quashed - Retrial to be had after commencement of CPA - Applicability of CPA - Presentment - Validity - Filed over after commencement of CPA - Crown required to lay indictments in accordance with CPA - Criminal Procedure Act 2009 (No 7) ss 158 159 164 Sch 4 cl 9

Insurance - Contract - Construction - Legal liability - Legal costs extension clause - Costs of successful defence of product liability claim - Canting keel for ocean-going racing yacht - Control mechanism - Design, manufacture and sale of hydraulic cylinders - Specifications - Failure of cylinders - Capsize of yacht - Required nexus between legal costs claim and policy indemnity - Analysis of third party's claim as litigated - Exclusion clauses - Construction - No cover for treatment design and professional risks - Business context.

Criminal law - Incest - Father and step-daughters - Evidence - Coincidence - Cross-admissibility - Limited to similar evidence - Possibility of concoction - Relevance - Assessment of probative value - Trial judge ruling no real possibility - Probative value outweighing prejudicial effect - Sentence - No error in sentencing - Evidence Act 2008 (No 47) ss 97(1)(b) 98(1)(b) 101

Criminal law - Sentence - Verdins principles - Moral culpability - General deterrence - Causal relation between mental illness and offending - Brain injury - Depressive illness - Drug offences - Cultivation of cannabis - Theft of electricity - Reliance at plea on Verdins principles 5 and 6 - No reliance on Verdins principles 1 or 3 despite evidentiary foundation - No inconsistency between Verdins and Muldrock.

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Injuries suffered in 2003 - Serious injury - Leave application dismissed - Loss of earning capacity - 40% requirement - Pain and suffering consequences - Fitness for work - Medical evidence - Conflict - Trial judge misapplying evidence - Former nurse aged 69 at time of trial - Qualified to continue working - Precluded from successful retraining - Court of Appeal deciding leave application for itself - No fresh evidence adduced on appeal - Very considerable loss of earning capacity established - "Suitable employment" - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 134AB(37) 134AB(38)(b) 134AB(38)(c) 134AD

Trusts and trustees - Powers - Judicial advice - Defence by trustees of legal proceedings - Compromise - Application for approval - Principles - Nature of procedure - Supreme Court (General Civil Procedure) Rules 2005 r 54.02.

Criminal law - Sentence - Imprisonment - Non-parole period - Appellate review - Principles - Intentionally causing serious injury and criminal damage - Whether non-parole period manifestly excessive - Whether accorded with judge's stated intention - No "usual" non-parole period - Totality.

Criminal law - Offences against property - Arson - Destruction of building by fire - Accused intentionally set fire to crates inside milk factory - Plea of guilty - No intent to destroy factory - No knowledge or belief that conduct likely to result in destruction of factory - Could not in law have been convicted of that offence - Indictment amended - Intentional destruction of milk crates - Crimes Act 1958 (No 6231) s 197 - Criminal Procedure Act 2009 (No 7) s 165

Sentence - Criminal damage - Intentional destruction of milk crates - Unintended direct consequences a factor in sentencing - Custodial penalty not warranted - Four months already served - Youthful offenders discharged - Crimes Act 1958 (No 6231) s 197 - Sentencing Act 1991 (No 49) ss 3(1) 5(2)(daa) 5(2)(db) 73

Contract - Construction - Commercial expectations - Building contract - HIA Plain English New Homes Contract - Domestic building - Role of third party lenders - Staged progress payments - Builder's entitlement - Need for effective and satisfactory completion - Stages completed out of sequence - Completion of lock-up stage - Garage part of home and building works - Premature demand for progress payment - Premature suspension of works - Owners' demand for builders to return to work - Owners' repudiation of contract - Non-compliance with mandated contents of notices - Domestic Building Contracts Act 1995 (No 91) ss 3 5 40

Real property - Domestic partners - Property interests - Adjustment - Jurisdiction - Whether adjustment sum ordered was just and equitable - On re-exercise of discretion, what adjustment order ought be made - Date of valuation of property - Property Law Act 1958 (No 6344) s 285.

Evidence - Appeal - Fresh evidence - Admissibility on appeal - Whether fresh evidence falsified basic assumption common to both sides - Whether to refuse admission would be an affront to common sense or a sense of justice.

Courts and judges - Jurisdiction - Property adjustment order - Whether court has jurisdiction to make order if it would affect third party creditors - Property Law Act 1958 (No 6344) Pt IX.

Costs - Appeal and cross-appeal - Each party succeeding - No order as to costs.

Costs - Trial judge departing from usual rule - Parties' conduct in interlocutory processes - Plaintiff engaging in improper conduct - Defendant engaging in dishonest conduct - Whether judge gave insufficient weight to improper conduct occurring in pre-trial period and during trial - Calderbank offer - Rejection - Consequences - Whether costs order need reflect the proportionate degree of success of a party - Leave to appeal refused - Supreme Court (General Civil Procedure) Rules 2005 r 26.05(2).

Practice and procedure - Group proceeding - Common questions of law and fact - Sample group members - Whether quantum of sample group members' claims should be determined at trial - Civil Procedure Act 2010 (No 47) s 9 - Supreme Court Act 1986 (No 110) s 33ZF

Practice and procedure - Group proceeding - Sample group members - Potential liability for costs - Declaration - Supreme Court Act 1986 (No 110) ss 33Q 33R 33ZD

Tort - Negligence - Defences - Proportionate liability - Pleading - Black Saturday bushfires (2009) - Kilmore East fire - Group proceeding against private electricity distributor - Alleged operational failure in transmission line component - Transmission line constructed by former State Electricity Commission (SEC) - Corporatisation and ensuing privatisation of Victorian electricity industry (1993/1994) - Legislative allocation of SEC liabilities to private distributor - Counterclaim by distributor against transmission line maintenance contractor - Contractor applying to amend defence to counterclaim - Contractor seeking to rely on distributor's allocated liability - Appeal against refusal of leave to amend - Amendment not futile - "Concurrent wrongdoer" - "Whose acts or omissions caused" - Wrongs Act 1958 (No 6420) Pt IVAA ss 23B 24AF 24AH 24AI 24AP

Practice and procedure - Group proceeding - Mode of trial - Writ endorsed for trial by judge alone - Black Saturday bushfires (2009) - Kilmore East fire - Plaintiff requesting jury trial - Discretionary considerations - Complexity of legal issues - Interests of justice - Proceeding to be tried without jury - Civil Procedure Act 2010 (No 47) s 49 - Supreme Court (General Civil Procedure) Rules 2005 r 47.02 - Juries Act 2000 (No 53) Pt 6