Litigant told High Court occupation was ‘disciple’

The central office of the High Court was entirely correct to refuse to accept a sworn statement in which a litigant described his occupation as “a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ,” a judge ruled.

Mr Justice Richard Humphreys said the litigant, who had sought to “duplicitously” challenge in the High Court a decision by the Residential Tenancies Board to fix a market rent for his tenancy, had issued “frivolous, grandiose and vexatious” proceedings.

“The courts are not a playground in which litigants can amuse themselves at will. For the court to bask in self-congratulatory patience for quirky insouciance of applicants would be to play the role of a judicial free-rider,” the judge said in a reserved judgment.