Wills and Estates — Will — Construction — Charitable gift — Residue of estate left to non-existent donee for charitable purposes — Where testator had a history of similar donations — Whether evidence of testator’s intention admissible — Whether Court had jurisdiction to settle an administrative scheme — Wills Act 1997 (Vic), s 36

Property — Retail Leases — Covenant against sharing possession — Covenant against sharing occupation — Liability of tenant for rent where premises cannot be used — Retail Leases Act 2003 (Vic), ss 54, 57(1)(a), (b)

Partnership and Partners — Dissolution of partnership — Taking of accounts — Where one partner continued operating partnership business and using its assets before finalisation of dissolution — Where plaintiff entitled to share of post-dissolution profits attributable to, or interest calculable by reference to, share of partnership assets — Where the plaintiff elected an award of interest — Where negative net assets at dissolution — Whether interest calculated against gross assets or net assets — Whether subsequent discharge of business’s liabilities relevant — Partnership Act 1958 (Vic), s 46

Wills and Estates — Will — Construction of will — Beneficiaries — Grandchildren as survive testatrix — Whether grandchildren not born at date of death to be included in class of beneficiaries — Meaning of the word ‘survive’ — Admissibility of extrinsic evidence — Application of the ‘armchair principle’ — Date for closure of the class of beneficiaries — Application of the principle of en ventre sa mère — Wills Act 1997 (Vic), ss 36, 46

Sale of Land — Title — Identity of land — Construction of identity clause — Application of the rule in Flight v Booth (1834) 131 ER 1160

Sale of Land — Breach — Warranties — Whether there were actionable breaches by the Vendors of contractual warranties

Judgments, Orders and Declarations — Whether questions hypothetical or pointless — Whether declaration available — Property Law Act 1958 (Vic), s 49

Equity — Rectification — Common mistake — Whether rectification available if mistake results from the claimant’s own negligence

Estoppel — Estoppel by convention — Pre-contractual communications — Whether estoppel by convention may be founded on pre-contractual communications

Negligence — Duty of Care — Occupier’s Liability — Personal Injury — Claim brought by tenant against landlord and managing real estate agent — Property not in good repair — Whether landlord delegated duty of care to agent — Wrongs Act 1958 (Vic), s 14B

Contribution between tortfeasors — Whether judge erred in finding that landlord failed to take any real steps to ensure property was in good repair — Whether judge erred in apportioning liability two-thirds to landlord and one-third to agent — Wrongs Act 1958 (Vic), s 24(2)

Negligence — Duty of care — Causation — Employee — Journalist — Crime and court reporting — Exposure to traumatic events — Post-traumatic stress disorder — Measures to identify and prevent psychological injury — Need to respect autonomy and privacy of employees — Damages

Criminal Law — Appeal against conviction — Negligently causing serious injury — Medical practitioner causing patients to be infected with hepatitis C virus — Whether convictions unsafe and unsupported by the evidence — Whether miscarriage of justice — Availability of new treatment options for hepatitis C — Whether fresh evidence — ‘Injury’ and ‘serious injury’ — Crimes Act 1958 (Vic), s 24 — Criminal Procedure Act 2009 (Vic), s 276

Personal property — Uncollected goods — Disposal — Where plaintiff stored shipping containers and contents deposited by wound up business — Where defendants owned the containers — Whether statutory scheme applied to disposal of the containers and contents — Whether the Court could make consequential orders if the containers were unable to be sold — Whether plaintiff had priority in the containers and proceeds of sale — Australian Consumer Law and Fair Trading Act 2012 (Vic), pt 4.2 — Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth), s 73

Criminal law — Permanent stay of proceedings — Causing serious injury — Charges filed in summary stream of Magistrates’ Court — Summary determination appropriate — Uplift to committal refused — Direct indictment to County Court on same charges — Whether direct indictment an abuse of process — Criminal Procedure Act 2009 (Vic), ss 3, 29, 30(6),96, 156, 161, 162 — Public Prosecutions Act 1994 (Vic), ss 3, 45C

Criminal law — Sentencing — Crown appeal against sentence — Manslaughter by unlawful and dangerous act — Respondent shot deceased twice — Respondent concealed deceased’s body and told lies to police and others — Deceased’s body not discovered for 17 years — Test for manifest inadequacy — Whether sentence manifestly inadequate

Criminal Law — Appeal — Dangerous driving causing death and serious injury — Undiagnosed severe sleep apnoea — Whether driving was conscious and voluntary — Misdirection — Whether conviction open to jury if properly instructed — Miscarriage of justice

Word and Phrases — ‘Conscious and voluntary’

Real property — Co-ownership — Dispute between tenants in common — Application to Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal for orders for sale of property and distribution of proceeds of sale — Whether pt IV of the Property Law Act 1958 confers jurisdiction on the Tribunal to make declaration and order a co-owner to transfer interest in land to a co-owner — Whether correct legal test for imposition of constructive trust applied — Property Law Act 1958 (Vic), ss 225, 228, 232, 233 — Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 1998, s 124

Administrative law — Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal — Jurisdiction — Original jurisdiction — Sale or division of co-owned land or goods — Orders — Declaration — Whether authority to determine equitable interests in land — Whether authority to order transfer of interest between co-owners — Property Law Act 1958 (Vic), ss 225, 228, 232, 233 — Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 1998, s 124

Constitutional Law — Commonwealth — Judicial power of Commonwealth — State civil and administrative tribunal — Proceeding to which Commonwealth a party brought in Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal — Whether VCAT ‘court of a State’ within meaning of Commonwealth Constitution, Ch III — Whether grant of relief involved exercise of judicial power under Equal Opportunity Act 2010 — Whether ‘matter’ before VCAT — Whether VCAT capable of exercising State judicial power against Commonwealth — Commonwealth Constitution, Ch III — Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic), s 125

Tort — Negligence — Duty of care — Prisoner — Duty of State owed to prisoner — Risk of contracting COVID-19 virus — Application to be released from prison for purpose related to health — Interlocutory orders — Whether prima facie case that duty of care breached — Discretionary considerations — Appropriate orders — Corrections Act 1986 (Vic), ss 47(1), 57A, 112D, 112O

Injunctions — Interlocutory injunctions — Preservation of subject matter of proceeding — Inherent jurisdiction — Supreme Court Act 1986 (Vic), s 37

Human Rights — Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities — Right to recognition and equality — Right to life — Humane treatment when deprived of liberty — Whether rights unreasonably limited — Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic), ss 7(2), 8, 9, 22, 38

Criminal Law — Appeal — Fresh and compelling evidence — Fair trial — Prosecution duty of disclosure — Evidence integral to case not disclosed — Whether fresh evidence reliable, substantial and highly probative — Substantial miscarriage of justice — Lack of credibility and reliability of witnesses — Multifaceted manipulation of evidence — Criminal Procedure Act 2009 (Vic), ss 326A, 326C, 326D

Administrative Law — Procedural fairness — Exclusion of procedural fairness — Compulsory acquisition of land — Decision to acquire unreserved private land — Steps in statutory process — Issue of notice of acquisition — Purchaser of land not given opportunity to be heard — Whether publication of notice of acquisition conditioned by obligation to accord procedural fairness — Exclusion of procedural fairness — Land Acquisition and Compensation Act 1986 (Vic), ss 5(3), 6, 7, 8, 19, 20

Planning and environment — Compulsory acquisition of land — Procedural fairness — Decision to acquire unreserved private land under statutory process — Issue of notice of acquisition — Purchaser of affected land not given opportunity to be heard — Whether publication of notice of acquisition conditioned by obligation to accord procedural fairness — Land Acquisition and Compensation Act 1986 (Vic), ss 5(1), 5(3), 6, 7, 8, 19, 22

Appeal — Civil — Practice and procedure — Application to allow appeal by consent — Duty of Court to be satisfied of appellable error

Practice and procedure — Necessary parties — Omission of registered proprietor from proceeding challenging compulsory acquisition of land — Effect on rights

Practice and procedure — Group proceeding — Settlement — Approval — Scheme for distribution of settlement funds — Whether administrator required — Whether scheme to be approved

Administrative law — Freedom of Information — Request — Whether documents sufficiently identified — Whether invalidity of part of request invalidated entire request — Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Vic), s 17

Practice and procedure — Referral of questions of law by Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal to Court — Whether President of Tribunal must consent to final form of referred questions — Whether referral valid — Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 1998 (Vic), ss 75 and 96

Practice and procedure — Interest — Statutory interest — Claim for compensation arising from acquisition of land by local council — Compensation paid to land owner before judgment — Non-statutory compensation — Whether land owner entitled to interest on compensation — Whether compensation a ‘debt or sum certain’ — Whether compensation ‘recovered’ in a proceeding — When compensation ‘payable’ — Whether ‘good cause’ ‘shown to the contrary’ — Supreme Court Act 1986 (Vic), s 58

Real Property — Easements — Easement by prescription — Leasehold — Claim by tenant to establish and enforce easement — Whether consent or authority of the head landlord required to establish a prescriptive easement — Whether easement can be claimed on behalf of a head landlord who is a statutory corporation — Whether consent of the head landlord of dominant tenant required to establish or enforce an easement by prescription — Parties — Joinder — Property Law Act 1958 (Vic), s 62 — Transport Integration Act 2010 (Vic), s 122