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Status Conference
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Status Conference

What is a Status Conference?

What is a status conference? A status conference is part of the appeal procedures of the Supreme Court. The specific provisions for status conference are found under Order 13, rules 10 to 11 of the Supreme Court Rules 2012.

Who conducts status conference?

A status conference is conducted by duty judge. A duty judge is a judge that is assigned by the Chief Justice to conduct listed and hear application or motions which he has the jurisdictions to hear. This also includes urgent applications.  This judge is the duty judge for that circuit month.

When is a status conference held?

A status conference is held by the duty judge on a Monday. It must be the Monday of the week that is prior to the date that is scheduled for the Court sitting.

What happens at a status conference?

The duty judge will review each matter on the draft Hearing List and may do as follows:

  1. issue further directions as may be necessary to make the proceedings ready for hearing; or
  2. may confirm that the matter is ready for hearing.

If the duty judge confirms that the matter is ready for trial, his Honour will check the following: –

  1. Confirm parties’ compliance with directions issued at the Directions Hearing.
  2. Confirm the correctness of the Book which can be either be an appeal book or an application book.
  3. Refer to summary determination, matters which fail to comply with directions issued at the Directions Hearing or otherwise fail to comply with procedures prescribed by the relevant rule or statute.
  4. Confirm length of hearing time.
  5. Confirm that written submissions have been prepared and filed in compliance with earlier directions.
  6. Confirm that the parties have prepared extracts of submissions, in accordance with the Rules of the Court, to be handed up at the hearing of the matter.
  7. Confirm the date or dates for the hearing of the matter.

Once the duty judges hear the parties or a party to the proceeding, he may then:

  1. confirm the hearing date; or
  2.  adjourn the Status Conference as is necessary, to enable the parties to fully comply with directions; or
  3. refer the matter for summary determination.

Status Conference Form

When the duty judge completes that status conference, the Associate of the duty judge will record a summary of the Status Conference. This record must be in Form 10B as set out in Schedule 1 of the Supreme Court Rules. The Associate will then place this form on the Court file.

What happens when a matter is confirmed for hearing?

Once a matter is confirmed for hearing, it will then be listed on the Hearing List. The Hearing List is kept and maintained by the Registrar. This list contains all matters listed for hearing with hearing dates confirmed at the status conference.

The Registrar shall prepare a Hearing list within 2 days from the date of the Status Conference. The Registrar will work in consultation with the associate of the duty judge. The Registrar will then issue out the Hearing List to all parties on the list. The Hearing List is not subject to alteration except by the Chief Justice or the Court before which the matter is listed.

Can a matter be adjourned during status conference?

A proceeding will that is before the duty judge for status conference will not be adjourned generally. Even though parties to the proceedings consent to adjourn the matter generally, the duty judge will not grant adjournment. However, if the parties require time to consider their position or negotiate a settlement then the duty judge may adjourn the proceedings for a comparatively lengthy period but always to a fixed date with liberty to restore the matter to either the Call over List or Directions Hearing or Status Conference, within that time.

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Notice of Appeal

How do you institute an appeal proceeding in the Supreme Court if you are aggrieved by the decision of the National Court? You can file the appeal proceedings by way of a notice of appeal.

Notice of Appeal

A notice of appeal is the first court document that you can file in an appeal proceeding. The party who instituted the appeal proceeding is referred to as the appellant and the other party is referred to as the respondent. The notice of appeal must:

  1. state that an appeal lies without leave or that leave has been granted and or annex the appropriate order to the notice of appeal.
  2. state whether the whole or part only and what part of the judgment is appealed from.
  3. state briefly but specifically the grounds relied upon in support of the appeal.
  4. state what judgment the appellant seeks in lieu of that appealed from.
  5. be in accordance with form 8.
  6. be signed by the appellant or his lawyer.
  7. be filed in the Supreme Court Registry.

Appeal lies without leave

A party affected by the decision of the National Court in a civil or criminal proceedings has a statutory right to appeal the judgement to the Supreme Court. This statutory right is provided to the party in Section 4 of the Supreme Court Act (Chapter 37). A party who is wants to appeal a decision of the National Court would not need to apply to the Supreme Court to seek its leave to appeal if the grounds of appeal that he would like to raise involve:

  1. a question of law.
  2. A question of mixed fact and law.

Appeal lies with leave

A party who is wants to appeal a decision of the National Court a civil or criminal proceedings would need to apply to the Supreme Court to seek its leave to appeal if the grounds of appeal that he would like to raise involve a question of facts.

In such instances, before the party files a notice of appeal, he would first file an application to the Supreme Court wherein he will seek leave of the Court to appeal. The appellant will only file the notice of appeal, once leave is granted.

Apart from the above, in civil proceedings in the National Court, an aggrieved party can also apply to the Supreme Court for leave to appeal from judgements and orders in the following circumstances:

  1. from an order allowing an extension of time for appealing or applying for leave to appeal.
  2. from an interlocutory judgement made or given by the National Court.
  3. from an order of the National Court as to costs only that by law are left to the discretion of the National Court.

Grounds of the Appeal

The grounds of the appeal must meet the followings requirement as set out under Order 7 Rules 9 (c) and 10 of the Supreme Court Rules:

  1. The grounds of appeal must be brief but specific. It must make grammatical and legal sense. It must also be intelligible.
  2. If the appellant alleged that the primary learned judge erred in law, then the grounds of appeal must clearly show such error. Furthermore, it must clearly show the reasons why the judgment is wrong in law.
  3. If the appellant alleges that the learned primary judge erred in law, then the grounds of appeal must clearly specify with particularity the ground he relies on to say the such an error of law was made. It is not sufficient for a ground of appeal to be drafted in those terms only.

The Supreme Court cases that explains further on these requirement are: Lama v NDB Investments Ltd [2015] PGSC 15; SC1423 (Cannings J, Collier & Geita JJ), Ipili Porgera investments Ltd v. Bank South Pacific Ltd (2007) SC1322 (Injia DCJ, Cannings J) and Haiveta v. Wingti & Ors (No. 2) [1994] PNGLR 189 (Amet CJ Kapi DCJ Los Salika Jalina JJ).

Grounds of Appeal
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Grounds of Appeal

A notice of appeal is the first court document that you can file in an appeal proceeding. The party who instituted the appeal proceeding is referred to as the appellant and the other party is referred to as the respondent. The notice of appeal must:

  1. state that an appeal lies without leave or that leave has been granted and or annex the appropriate order to the notice of appeal; and
  2. state whether the whole or part only and what part of the judgment is appealed from; and
  3. state briefly but specifically the grounds relied upon in support of the appeal; and
  4. state what judgment the appellant seeks in lieu of that appealed from;
  5. be in accordance with form 8; and
  6. be signed by the appellant or his lawyer; and
  7. be filed in the registry.

Requirements for the grounds of the Appeal

The grounds of the appeal must meet the followings requirement as set out under Order 7 Rules 9 (c) and 10 of the Supreme Court Rules:

  1. The grounds of appeal must be brief but specific. It must make grammatical and legal sense. It must also be intelligible.
  2. If the appellant alleged that the primary learned judge erred in law, then the grounds of appeal must clearly show such error. Furthermore, it must clearly show the reasons why the judgment is wrong in law.
  3. If the appellant alleges that the learned primary judge erred in law, then the grounds of appeal must clearly specify with particularity the ground he relies on to say the such an error of law was made. It is not sufficient for a ground of appeal to be drafted in those terms only.

The Supreme Court cases that explains further on these requirement are: Lama v NDB Investments Ltd [2015] PGSC 15; SC1423 (Cannings J, Collier & Geita JJ), Ipili Porgera investments Ltd v. Bank South Pacific Ltd (2007) SC1322 (Injia DCJ, Cannings J) and Haiveta v. Wingti & Ors (No. 2) [1994] PNGLR 189 (Amet CJ Kapi DCJ Los Salika Jalina JJ).

Reasons for the requirements

The Supreme Court in Haiveta v. Wingti & Ors (supra) sets out the two reasons why the grounds of appeal must meet the above requirements. These reasons are as follows:

  1. The respondent, when reading the grounds of appeal, must be able to know the basis of the appeal so he can prepare his arguments.
  2. The court, when reading the grounds of appeal, must be able to know the issues to be determined.

Failure to meet the requirements

The requirements are mandatory. If an appellant fails to comply with these requirements, the Court could find the appeal incompetent. See the judgement in Kou v Kaupa [2010] PGSC 18; SC1021 (David, Gabi & Kariko, JJ. If the appellant does not set out clearly the grounds of appeal in accordance with the requirements above, the Supreme Court has the discretion to strike out the grounds of appeal that offends the requirements. If, on the other hand, all the grounds of appeal offend these requirements, the Court can dismiss the entire appeal on the basis that the appeal is incompetent.

Examples of cases in Papua New Guinea

There are several cases in this jurisdiction that the Supreme Court struck out the grounds of appeal on the basis that these grounds do not meet the requirements.  These Haiveta v. Wingti & Ors (No. 2) [supra], Henao v Coyle (2000) SC655 and NCD Water and Sewerage Ltd v Tasion (2002) SC696.

In conclusion, the requirements are mandatory. Hence, an appellant must ensure that his grounds of appeal meet these requirements.

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