PMD5 v State of New South Wales [2025] NSWSC 706 (Link to Caselaw)
PMD5 had been convicted of offences in Victoria and was imprisoned there. He made an application under the Felons Act for leave to commence proceedings. The statement of claim sought damages from the State of NSW, as defendant, as a consequence of sexual abuse which the plaintiff alleged occurred to him between 1986 and 1999 at the hands of his father. The plaintiff claimed that the defendant, being the organisation responsible for child welfare, owed to him a duty to take reasonable care to avoid causing him particular harm, which was known to the defendant.
Section 4 of the Felons Act provides that a person who is in custody as a result of having been convicted of, or found to have committed, a serious indictable offence may not institute any civil proceedings in any court except by the leave of that court granted on application.
At noted at [16]:
The principal issue for consideration is whether, having regard to the terms of the Felons (Civil Proceedings) Act 1981 (NSW) (“the Felons Act”), it is applicable in circumstances where a plaintiff who has a claim which is jurisdictionally appropriate to be brought in this Court, because the cause of action arose in NSW and the plaintiff suffered damage in NSW, ought be required to obtain leave to commence proceedings under the Felons Act if he has committed no serious indictable offence in NSW but has been convicted outside NSW, and is not in custody in NSW at the time proceedings are commenced, but is in custody outside NSW.
The court held that applying both the common law rule of interpretation and the provisions of s 12 of the Interpretation Act, s 4 of the Felons Act is to be interpreted as applying to a person in custody in NSW who has been convicted of or found to have committed a serious indictable offence in NSW.
Accordingly the Notice of Motion brought by the plaintiff was unnecessary and was dismissed.
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