Practice and procedure - Parties - Joinder - Leave to add - Limitation of actions - Whether court should refuse joinder if limitation defence available - Commencement of proceedings backdated to preclude limitation defence - Whether court has power to backdate commencement of proceedings - Limitation of Actions Act 1958 (No 6295) - Supreme Court Rules, R1.14(1)(b), R9.06, R9.11.

Practice and procedure - Parties - Joinder - Extension of time for amendment of writ - Extension of time for service of process - Exercise of discretion - Supreme Court Rules, R3.02, R9.11(1), R11.07(4), R11.15.

Practice and procedure - Service out of jurisdiction - Third party notice - Strong arguable case - Supreme Court Rules, R7.01(1).

Carriers - Shipping - Bailment - Bill of lading - Demise charter - Operation contract - Whether operation contract rendered operator bailee or carrier of goods.

Contract - Joint venture agreement - Formation - Offer and acceptance - Implied agreement - Incompleteness - Implied terms - Commercial agreements - Written documents replacing implied agreement - Fiduciary duties - Obligation to act in good faith - Foreign law.

Criminal law - Sentence - Appeal against sentence by Director of Public Prosecutions - Complaint confined to length of non-parole period fixed - Relevant considerations.

Contract - Intention to create legal relations - Uncertainty and incompleteness - Whether document relied on is promissory - Conditional offer capable of acceptance distinguished from agreement on conditions for making an offer - Failure of bargain because of uncertainty and incompleteness - Onus of proof - Breach - Repudiation - Condition requiring performance unless opinion formed - Meaning of "financial viability" - Offer and acceptance - "Implied contract".

Practice and procedure - Parties - Plaintiff discontinues after counterclaim instituted - Solicitors remaining on the record after discontinuance - Whether service on solicitors is good service for purposes of counterclaim - Supreme Court Rules, Ch I, R20.03, R25.02, R27.02.

Administrative law - Equal opportunity - Discrimination - Indirect discrimination - Impairment - Employment - Voluntary departure package - Exclusion of employees on WorkCare - Reasonableness of requirement - Onus of proof - Appeal from Equal Opportunity Board - Questions of law - Equal Opportunity Act 1984 (No. 10095), s17(1), s17(5), s49(4).

Contract - Principal and agent - Liabilities of agent - Agent contracting on behalf of disclosed but unidentified principal.

Contract - Consideration - Failure of consideration - Recovery of money paid.

Criminal law - Murder - Evidence - Whether affirmative statements made by applicant admissible as a basis for inference of guilty knowledge - Whether applicant's failure to assert his innocence amounted to conduct inconsistent with innocence - Significance of applicant's silence at trial - Whether conversations between applicant and police and a written statement forwarded to police by applicant's solicitor inadmissible - Crimes Act 1958 (No. 6231), s464A, s464H.

Criminal law - Recklessly engaging in conduct endangering persons - Elements of offence - Crimes Act 1958 (No. 6231), s23.

Appeal - Administrative Tribunals - Equal Opportunity Board - Appeal to Supreme Court - Procedure - Leave to appeal out of time - Exceptional circumstances - Appeal from master - Equal Opportunity Act 1984 (No. 10095), s49(4) - Magistrates' Court Act 1989 (No. 51), s109 - Supreme Court Rules, O.58, Pt3, r77.05.

Companies - Winding up - Statutory demand - Setting aside - Whether "genuine dispute" as to debt - Whether application interlocutory or final - Corporations Law, s459G, s459J.

Companies - Winding up - Statutory demand - Setting aside - Application to extend time - Corporations Law, s459G, s459S, s1322.

Administrative law - Judicial review - Ultra vires - Defective exercise of power - Rules of Harness Racing - Rule providing for levels of prohibited substances to be determined by controlling body - Whether impermissible sub-delegation of rule-making power - Uncertainty and unreasonableness - Whether purported determination under rules effective - Racing Act 1958 (No. 6353), s49, s83L(3).

Practice and procedure - Public interest immunity - Law Institute of Victoria - Documents relating to inquiry into affairs of solicitor - Whether Federal Commissioner of Taxation entitled to access to documents - Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (Cth), s263.

Administrative law - Practice and procedure - Jurisdiction of Magistrates' Court - Metropolitan Fire Brigades Board - Fees for false fire alarm - Determination by Metropolitan Fire Brigades' Board of whether reasonable excuse for alarm - Appeal to Administrative Appeals Tribunal - Fees recoverable in Magistrates' Court - Whether Magistrates' Court had jurisdiction to determine question of reasonable excuse - Metropolitan Fire Brigades Act 1958 (No. 6315), s32D, s66A.

Estoppel - Promissory estoppel - Promises by defendant not to plead certain defences - Defendant later purporting to resile from promises - Whether it should be permitted to do so - Relevant principles. Evidence - Promissory estoppel - Proof of reliance - Proof of detriment - Evidence of psychological harm to plaintiff - Hypothetical test of detriment. Practice and procedure - Pleading - Estoppel - Whether promissory estoppel may be pleaded as a defence - Relief - Whether party estopped should be held to assumption - Proportionality of relief to detriment - "Minimum equity".

Arbitration - Removal of arbitrator - Misconduct - Denial of natural justice - Refusal of arbitrator to order further and better particulars - Total loss claim - Particulars of nexus between events and time/money consequences - Abuse of process - Court's power to order further and better particulars - Relevant considerations - Commercial Arbitration Act 1984 (No. 10167), s4, s44, s47.

Defamation - Privilege - Absolute privilege - Statements made in quasi-judicial proceedings - Complaint to Secretary of law Institute - Public policy - Legal Profession Practice Act 1958 (No. 6291), s38Q, s38s, s38y, s38z, s84, s86A, s87.

Mistake - Insurance - Life insurance - Loan to insured - Surrender of policy sought by insured - Offer by insurer of sum "net of outstanding debts" - Mistake by insurer in calculating outstanding debts - Innocent acceptance by insured of offer - Overpayment by insurer on surrender - Whether recoverable as money paid under mistake - Life Insurance Act 1945 (Cth), s97, s100, Sixth Schedule.

Sale of land - Contract - Obligations varied by subsequent agreements - Whether a single contract - Whether a "terms contract" - Mortgage over land - Failure to provide for purchaser to assume mortgage - Failure to apply purchase moneys to discharge of mortgage - Purchaser's statutory right to avoid the contract - Rescission by purchaser - Whether vendor entitled to relief from avoidability - Election - Waiver - Estoppel - Sale of Land Act 1962 (No 6975), s2(1), s2(4), s6, s14 - Estate Agents (Standard Forms of Contract) Rules 1983 (No 81), Second Schedule.

Criminal law - Practice and procedure - Stay of proceedings - Appeal from order granting - Competency - Supreme Court Act 1986 (No 110), s10(2), s14(3).

Mortgages - Lease - Mortgagee bound by lease - Variation of lease between mortgagor and tenant - Mortgagor in default under mortgage at time of variation - No consent to variation by mortgagee - Whether mortgagee bound by variation - Transfer of Land Act 1958 (No 6399), s81(1).

Landlord and tenant - Lease - Option to renew - Tenant in default at time of exercise of option - Lease of "retail premises" - Failure by landlord to give tenant notice of default - Surrender of lease - Whether variation constituted termination of original tenancy - Whether premises abandoned - Retail Tenancies Act 1986 (No 106), s3(1), s14(5).

Criminal law - Road safety - Driving offence - Breath testing - Whether breath analysing instrument authorised - Whether reason must be given for requirement to attend other place for breath testing - Road Safety Act 1986 (No 127), s49(1)(f), s55(1), s58(4).

Resumption and acquisition of land - Refusal of planning permission - Compensation - Referral of claim to Land Valuation Board of Review - Purported revocation of referral of claim - Whether effective - Referral of claim to Supreme Court - Whether claim involved questions of unusual difficulty - Meaning of "claim" - Land Acquisition and Compensation Act 1986 (No 121), s81, s84 - Planning and Environment Act 1987 (No 45), s3, s98(2), s108.

Companies - Winding up - Receiver and manager - Power of receiver and manager to deal with property after commencement of liquidation - Corporations Law, s465(2), s468(1), s1383 - Corporate Law Reform Act 1992 (Cth), s185.

Estoppel - Issue estoppel - Privity - Earlier proceeding to sanction scheme of arrangement - Whether findings against company raise estoppel against directors.

Evidence - Evidence given in earlier proceeding by defendant in current proceeding - Whether binding on other defendants in current proceeding - Authority to make admissions.

Companies - Co-operatives - Scheme of arrangement - Purpose - To confirm elements of co-operative structure - Whether "oppression" - Abuse of power - Directors' duties - Personal liability of director for failing to provide full information to members - Derivative action - Fraud on minority - Lord Cairns' Act - Companies (Victoria) Code, s229, s320, s535, s574 - Companies Regulations, Sch 9 - Supreme Court Act 1986 (No 110), s38.

Consumer credit - Regulated loan contract - Statement of amount financed - Inclusion of valuation fee in amount financed - Whether a contravention of s16(1)(b) of the Credit Act 1984 - Failure to disclose commission charge - Debtor not liable to pay credit charge - Application by credit provider for reinstatement of credit charge - Credit Act 1984 (No 10097), s36(1), s42(1), s75, s85, s86, Sch 4 - Credit Regulations 1984 (No 449), Reg27.

Appeal - Appeal from discretionary decision of Credit Tribunal - Whether rehearing de novo - Whether to Full Court or to single judge - Credit (Administration) Act 1984 (No 10091), s85J - County Court Act 1958 (No 6230) - Supreme Court Rules, R58.01(2), R64.15(2).

Precedents - Stare decisis - Circumstances in which Full Court may depart from earlier Full Court decision.