Australian Financial Services and Leasing Pty Limited v. Hills Industries Limited and Anor
Case No.
S163/2013
Case Information
Lower Court Judgment
4/12/2012 Supreme Court of New South Wales (Court of Appeal) (Bathurst CJ, Allsop P, Meagher JA)
Catchwords
Equity – Restitution – “Change of position” defence – AFSL paid money to Hills and another company to enable a third party to purchase certain equipment from Hills and the other company and then lease that equipment to the third party – The third party fabricated documents and contrary to AFSL’s belief no equipment was acquired – AFSL commenced proceedings in restitution against Hills and the other company – Trial Judge found for AFSL on basis that Hills gave no consideration for monies received from AFSL and Hills had not suffered detriment arising out of a speculative change of its position after receiving those monies – Decision reversed on appeal – Court of Appeal held that by discharging debts owed to Hills by the third party Hills had given up opportunity to enforce payment of those debts – Whether defence of “change of position” in claims for money paid to third party by financier under mistake of fact extends to this situation – Whether in order to make out defence of change of position defendant is required to point to specific and quantifiable expenditure or financial loss because of mistaken payment?
Documents
16/08/2013 Hearing (SLA, Sydney)
30/08/2013 Notice of appeal
20/09/2013 Written submissions (Appellant)
20/09/2013 Chronology (Appellant)
11/10/2013 Written submissions (First Respondent)
18/10/2013 Written submissions (Second Respondent)
01/11/2013 Reply
11/02/2014 Hearing (Full Court, Canberra) (Audio-visual recording)
07/05/2014 Judgment (Judgment summary)