The Court of Appeal allowed the appeal and set aside the judgment. The grounds of the decision were a little bit anticlimactic from a Letters Blogatory perspective. The District Court is a court of inferior jurisdiction, and Justice MacFarlan held that the District Court lacked jurisdiction over a person who was served by substituted service after having left Australia. So the case was really about the special limitations on the jurisdiction of the District Court and nothing broader. But suppose the case had been brought in a court without such limitations on its jurisdiction. Then we might expect to see a decision about whether service of process by Facebook is permissible under the Hague Service Convention. So here’s hoping that Mothership Music tries again.
Photo credit: US Information Agency
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