With thanks to Patrick Thompson for drawing my attention to BJP1 v Salesian Society (VIC) Inc [2021] NSWSC 241 (on Caselaw).
The claimant filed proceedings to which a defence was filed. The defence pleaded as an entire answer to the plaintiff’s Statement of Claim, that the plaintiff and the defendant had, in 1999, entered into a Deed of Release (“the 1999 Deed”) “… the effect of which is to extinguish any further liability of the defendant and to bar any further claim or action brought by the plaintiff”.
At [9] the Court commented: The issue in dispute before the Court, and with which this judgment deals, is whether the settlement, which was undoubtedly reached at the mediation, was intended to, and did, constitute an immediately binding agreement between the parties or whether the agreement reached at the mediation was intended only to become effective if and when a Deed of Release was executed by each of the parties and, in the case of the plaintiff, that executed copy returned to the defendant to enable it to take the necessary steps to pay the agreed monies.
The Court held at [14] that the agreement reached at the mediation was intended by the parties to be immediately binding, and the plaintiff should be held to that agreement.