In a five-year battle, former Logan City Council CEO Sharon Kelsey has been granted the right to appeal her dismissal case.
In October, the Supreme Court of Queensland ruled that former Logan City Council CEO Sharon Kelsey could proceed with an appeal against the council and seven former councillors, overruling a court decision made in October.
The appeal started on April 1, 2021, after the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission vice-president Peter Davis dismissed an application by Ms Kelsey, which alleged her employment as Logan Chief Executive Officer was illegally terminated.
In his ruling, Justice Davis said Ms Kelsey had no reasonable grounds of success on her appeal.
“Ms Kelsey has demonstrated her contumelious disregard for the processes of the Court and the legitimate interest of the respondents and, even now, there is no reason to be confident that she could prosecute the appeal if she was given leave to amend her application to appeal,” he said.
“Even if I had identified a reasonably arguable ground of appeal, I would have still dismissed the application on the basis that it was not just and fair to allow the amendments in all the circumstances.
“She has no reasonable grounds of success on the appeal, the application should be dismissed.”
Court documents show that Justice Davis said Ms Kelsey filed a non-complaint application to appeal.
“Ms Kelsey paid no respect to the rules and no respect to the rights of the respondents. She sought to unilaterally extend the 10 time she had to file an application for leave to appeal by filing a non-compliant document,” he said.
“Ms Kelsey’s disregard for the processes of the court and the legitimate interests of the respondents is egregious.”
A substitute application to appeal, called Annexure B, was submitted in June 2021 by Ms Kelsey, detailing what it said was the court’s initial failure to consider relevant evidence, factual errors and included 27 grounds of appeal.
In their October hearing, Justices McMurdo, Flanaghan and Freeburn challenged Justice Davis’ ruling, saying Ms Kelsey took significant steps to prosecute her appeal.
“Ms Kelsey submits that having regard to the extensive body of evidence dealt with in Annexure B, which was not dealt with in the primary judge’s reasons, it cannot be said that her appeal had no real prospects of success,” they said.
“Ms Kelsey had taken significant steps to prosecute her appeal, including the filing of an application to amend, an application to appeal with 27 grounds of appeal and a 54-page written submission.
“None of these factors, whether considered alone or together, could justify the refusal of Ms Kelsey’s application to amend nor the summary dismissal of her appeal.”
Justices McMurdo, Flanaghan and Freeburn allowed Ms Kelsey to amend her application to appeal the Queensland Industrial Court ruling.
An appeal date is yet to be set.
