By the time I got to the appeal before Justice Osborn, I was heartily sick of lying lawyers. Lying lawyers had been party to the conspiracy since its inception and they had been party to denying and concealing the facts ever since. Lying lawyers had perpetuated the fraud. The behaviour of Delany, Garde and Middleton et al. before Master Efthim was the last straw. My written submissions to Justice Osborn were very strong in this regard and, believe it or not, I expected the Court to share my horror at what had occurred.
I fully expected the Court to be initially prejudiced against me because, on the face of it, Master Efthim's Reasons were compelling. They appeared to based on sound reasoning. In addition, at the hearing before Master Efthim, I had been represented by John Middleton who, by the time of the appeal, had become Justice Middleton of the Federal Court. To add to the Court's displeasure, I had sacked my legal team and was now appearing unrepresented! However I had confidence that this intitial prejudice would be overcome once I made my submissions.
Very early in the hearing before Justice Osborn, I formed the view that I was even further behind the eight ball than I ever imagined. Justice Osborn and Greg Garde had apparently worked together in the past. On the second day, Justice Osborn asserted councils are more likely to be incompetent than fraudulent. Then it became quite clear that Osborn and Garde had worked together on council amalgamation and it had formed a "great part" of their lives for some years. And here I was, about to drop bombs on Garde et al.
My bombs included that the lawyers had misled Master Efthim and that Mr. Garde consistently misleads courts. These things were extensively set out in my written submissions to Justice Osborn and included specific detail on Greg Garde misleading the Planning Appeals Tribunal in respect to the legality of the "Water Supply Agreement". [My submissions part 1 here, part 2 here (these are large documents)]
During the hearing, Justice Osborn raised without notice the issue of "potable" and "non-potable" water. This issue was irrelevant to the "causes of action" and was not in dispute. Greg Garde grabbed this lead and ran with it. [see here] Justice Osborn then substantially based his Reasons for Judgment on this issue.
After exchanges between Osborn and myself and handing up my written submissions, Justice Osborn's demeanor towards me was one of barely disguised contempt. I resigned myself to the fact that Osborn would find a way to come down against me. However it was with shock and horror anew that I read his Reasons for Judgment which are now discussed on this website. [see the pages under the menu item "Justice Osborn"]
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Justice Osborn's full Reasons for Judgment [also available on austlii database]
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