Judgment - Too difficult to prove dummy is dummy

The judgment in the case against Labor's MaryAnn Lindsay was handed down last week, with the decision that the applicant did not sufficiently prove Ms Lindsay was a stooge. The Labor member and her Labor lawyers then tried their hand at getting costs from HBCF committee members even though they weren't applicants to the case. This really was an act of desparation given that Ms Lindsay really didn't have any costs at all, and that the HBCF committee members cannot possibly be liable for any costs they weren't parties to.

Here's what the Magistrate had to say when she handed down her judgment about costs:

1. Costs ordinarily follow the event. However, this is a tribunal hearing and outside the ordinary commercial sphere in which the above rule applies.

2. The application was properly made by Mr Allsop.

3. The application raised and ventilated novel issues of law, particularly relating to the use of dummy candidates in local elections.

4. The use of postal voting in local elections makes this an increasingly important issue.

5. There is a public interest in ensuring the integrity of the electoral process, which is central to our political system. In this regard, the principles discussed in Greco also apply in this case.

6. Mr Allsop genuinely and robustly prosecuted his case; it was not a frivolous or vexatious application.

7. Accordingly, the application for costs against Mr Allsop is refused.

8. In relation to the non-parties, the case was run according to genuinely held beliefs of HBCF. This was not a case of the kind to which Mr Langmead referred in which the party was a “man of straw”; Mr Allsop was the proper applicant.

9. This was not an exceptional case in which costs should be awarded against a non-party.

10. Accordingly, the application for costs against the non-parties is refused.

Thank you and well done Noel Allsop for taking this case to court. It's good to see some people having the courage of their convictions.

Here are the articles from the press this week: