We wouldn’t quite call it an early gift from the Supreme Court Santa, but government has something to be cheery about after a victory over Telemedia in court today. You may recall that the Prime Minister had announced in the House of Representatives that Telemedia was suing Magistrate Edd Usher for a number of matters related to the phone company’s business tax, not least of which issuing an arrest warrant for BTL boss Dean Boyce.
That was tied into a suit with other related tax matters and the Chief Justice issued a 17 page judgement today. He struck out Telemedia’s claim, concluding that it was based on no reasonable grounds. He added that the claim for damages to the reputation of Telemedia and Dean Boyce were, “border(ing) on the incoherent and makes no sense.
As for the claim that Magistrate Usher had acted wrongly or quote, “egregiously in issuing the arrest warrant for Boyce on July fourth, the Chief Justice concluded that, quote, “Magistrates enjoy immunity for judicial acts when acting within their jurisdiction.”
