"... ambiguity may be its only clear
feature..."
– Kirby P of the NSW Court of Appeal (as he then
was) in McMillan v Mannix (1993) 31 NSWLR
538.
24 years later, the ambiguity plaguing Section 6 of Law Reform
(Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1946 (NSW) remains as ambiguous as
ever.
Section 6 was described as "at best opaque"
by the NSW Court of Appeal in Chubb Insurance Co of Australia
Ltd v Moore [2013] NSWCA 212 (Chubb v Moore).
The Court of Appeal called for section 6 to be repealed altogether
or completely redrafted in an intelligible form, so as to achieve
the objects for which it was enacted.
But all this is possibly about to change. On 19 December 2016,
the Attorney General released
Report 143 – Third party claims on Insurance Money: Review of
section 6 of the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1946
(Report 143) in which the NSW Law Reform
Commission proposed legislative changes to section 6 which would
set reform in motion.
