The company, Patrick Stevedores applied for special leave to appeal from a decision of the Full Court of the
Federal Court of Australia, which itself was an appeal from a decision by Justice
Tony North of the Federal Court upon an application for urgent interlocutory relief which had been brought by the
Maritime Union of Australia. The notice of motion seeking the interlocutory orders from North J was filed on 6 April 1998, and the litigation went from that original step to a decision of the High Court within a single month. The orders made by North J sought to unravel a set of arrangements which had been made within the Patrick group of companies, arrangements which were found to give rise to an arguable case that there had been a conspiracy to injure the MUA members in their employment, contrary to the protections of the
Workplace Relations Act 1996. Those orders were upheld on appeal to the Full Court of the Federal Court. ==Judgment==