Ok Tedi Mining Ltd v Niugini Insurance Corporation and Others (No 2) [1988–89] PNGLR 425

• Jurisdiction: Papua New Guinea
• Court: National Court
• Citation: [1988–89] PNGLR 425
• Date: 04 October 1989
• Year: 1989

Full Title: Ok Tedi Mining Ltd v Niugini Insurance Corporation and Others (No 2) [1988–89] PNGLR 425

National Court: Kapi DCJ

Judgment Delivered: 4 October 1989

1 Practice and procedure—objection to declaratory order on the basis that no consequential relief is claimed

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PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE—National Court—Declaratory relief—Jurisdiction—Procedural objection to claim for—Where no consequential relief sought—Within discretion of court—Relevant considerations—Multiplicity of proceedings—Disposition of issues—Complex proceedings—Whether advisable in.

Held:

(1) A procedural objection may now be made to a claim for a declaratory order on the ground that no consequential relief is sought.

Dent v Kavali [1981] PNGLR 488 at 490, considered.

(2)In determining whether such a procedural objection should be allowed, relevant discretionary considerations include whether allowing the claim would be encouraging multiplicity of proceedings and/or whether it would finally settle the real dispute between the parties.

(3)In order to keep the issues clear in a case which was complicated and likely to take a long time to complete, it was not advisable to deal with an additional claim for declaratory relief.

Cases Cited

The following cases are cited in the judgment:

Bruce v The Commonwealth Trade Marks Label Association (1907) 4 CLR 1569.

Dent v Kavali [1981] PNGLR 488

Glasgow Navigation Co v Iron Ore Co [1910] AC 293.

Luna Park Ltd v The Commonwealth of Australia (1923) 32 CLR 596.

NCDIC v Bogibada Holdings Pty Ltd [1987] PNGLR 135

Ok Tedi Mining Ltd v Niugini Insurance Co (No 1) [1988–89] PNGLR 355

Russian Commercial and Industrial Bank v British Bank for Foreign Trade Ltd [1921] 2 AC 438.

Swift Australian Co (Pty) Ltd v South British Insurance Co Ltd [1970] VR 368.

Taumaku Morea v Central Provincial Government [1978] PNGLR 415.

Motion

This was a motion on notice seeking, inter alia, to strike out parts of the statement of claim.

See also Ok Tedi Mining Ltd v Niugini Insurance Corporation (No 1) [1988–89] PNGLR 355

Kapi DCJ: By a notice of motion filed on 13 September 1989 the applicant/defendants seek various orders. In this judgment I will deal with matters that have been contested by the parties.

PAR 16

The plaintiff filed an amended statement of claim on 4 May 1989. Clauses 16, 16a, 16b and 16c were contained in the statement of claim. In an earlier application, the defendants applied to have all the mentioned clauses struck out and to give liberty to the plaintiff to replead the issues. In making my ruling, I struck out cl...