NEW SOUTH WALES COURT ISSUES JUDGEMENT For SEEK JUSTICE V/S BLUE MOUNTAINS LOCAL PLANNINGPANEL/BLUE MOUNTAINS CITY COUNCIL CASE

Australia, June 27 -- New South Wales Land and Environment Court issued text of the following judgement on May 26:

1. The applicant, Seek Justice Pty Ltd, has brought two separate proceedings in this Court in relation to two Ultra Trail Australia events, which are long distance trail races held in the Blue Mountains. The races in particular which are the subject of the proceedings occurred in 2021 and 2022. The races are held in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, and they are run by USM Events Pty Ltd (USM), who is the second respondent in proceeding 2023/174137 and the third respondent in proceeding 2024/292933. Both the appeals challenge the validity of a time-limited development consent granted by Blue Mountains City Council (Council) to USM, both of which consents were surrendered, as I understand it, after completion of the events. Mr Ivan Jeray is the sole director of the applicant company.

2. Let me describe the two proceedings, noting that there are some slight differences, even though they also overlap.

1) The first proceeding, which is 2023/174137, relates to the 2021 Ultra Trail Australia event and a judgment of Moore J in the Land and Environment Court, in which the applicant's claim was rejected. That decision is reported as Seek Justice Pty Ltd v Blue Mountains City Council and Anor [2021] NSWLEC 42. There was an appeal from that decision and the relief was refused yet again (see Seek Justice Pty Ltd v Blue Mountains City Council [2021] NSWCA 87). Following the applicant's repeated non-appearance at further directions hearings, the appeal was dismissed for lack of utility pursuant to orders by the Registrar. Those orders were upheld by this Court in 2022 in Seek Justice Pty Ltd v Blue Mountains City Council [2022] NSWCA 41. Much later, on 31 May 2023, the applicant filed a summons seeking leave to appeal and an extension of time. The first respondent in those proceedings is the Council. The second respondent is USM.

2) The other proceedings, 2024/292933, relate to the 2022 long distance running event. Two judgments were delivered in this matter in the Land and Environment Court. The first, by Pepper J, dealt with an amended summons filed 7 October 2022 and is reported as Seek Justice Pty Ltd v Minister for Planning [2022] NSWLEC 127, and the second, by Pritchard J, related to second further amended summons filed 14 July 2023. Her Honour's judgment is reported as Seek Justice Pty Ltd v Minister for Planning (No 2) [2024] NSWLEC 68. In both those cases, the applicant's challenge to the validity of the development consent was rejected. The applicant sought to expedite the hearing of its first amended summons seeking leave to appeal, and that was refused in this Court, Seek Justice Pty Ltd v Minister for Planning [2022] NSWCA 220. The first respondent in those proceedings is the Minister for Planning. On 9 August 2024, a notice of intention to appeal was filed in relation to the 2022 claim. This was followed by a notice of appeal filed 18 October 2024. The second respondent in those proceedings is the Council. The third respondent is USM.

3. Two notices of motion were listed for hearing before me as the Referrals Judge today. Both those motions were filed by the applicant.

1) The first is a motion filed 7 May 2025 in the 2024/292933 proceeding, which I will refer to as the "2022 motion".

2) The second motion was filed on 8 May in proceeding 2023/174137 and I will refer to it as the "2021 motion".

4. Both motions seek leave to file the motions out of time and to set aside orders that were made by the Registrar of the Court on 2 April 2025. On that day, the Registrar made an order under r 13.6 of the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW) dismissing the proceedings based on the applicant's failure to appear after notice was given of the hearing scheduled for 2 April 2025. Further, the applicant seeks an order as to costs in the cause or otherwise for the applicant to be reimbursed.

5. In the 2022 motion, the applicant also seeks additional orders to obtain leave to file an amended notice of appeal in the matter and additionally to be allowed to access, conduct a search and copy the council's records relevant to issues raised in the amended notice of appeal.

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/19732e356673c2c42bcd5b1e)

Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.