Rock Centre dispute akin to fable of smelly Chinese emperor, Carolyn Reynolds tells judge

‘A LONG time ago there was a Chinese emperor who had died and he was very smelly so they brought in a horse and the horse smelled and they tried to convince everybody it wasn’t a horse’

Former Country Liberals candidate Carolyn Reynolds intends to spend the next week researching centuries of English law dating back to the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215

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ROCK Centre owner Carolyn Reynolds has won an 11th hour reprieve for her Doctors Gully climbing gym after a judge gave her until Monday morning to vacate the premises this week.

On Wednesday, Local Court judge Alan Woodcock dismissed Ms Reynolds’ appeal against a Darwin council decision to evict her from the premises following a dispute over the lease.

Ms Reynolds applied for a last minute stay after lodging an appeal of that decision in the Supreme Court where on Friday Justice Trevor Riley agreed to give her one more week to get her paperwork together.

In rambling submissions Justice Riley described as “confused and confusing”, Ms Reynolds said her situation was analogous to “a well known adage in law” involving a smelly old Chinese man.

“A long time ago there was a Chinese emperor who had died and he was very smelly so they brought in a horse and the horse smelled and they tried to convince everybody it wasn’t a horse, it was a deer,” she said.

“In terms of that deer, everybody believed the horse was a deer — the way this has been presented at the moment, your honour, people are believing that it was my responsibility to enact the lease (but) the lease was already enacted, I gave notice verbally.”

Ms Reynolds said if she had not intended to continue the lease she would have taken steps to find herself a new place of business but did not “because I had a horse — a rock climbing centre where I had a lease”.

“I was not a deer, I was not the person who was not being up front,” she said.

Justice Riley said it was “with a great deal of reluctance” that he agreed to adjourn the matter until next Friday.

“I do so on the basis that Ms Reynolds informs me that she has not had time to prepare the case because there’s been a serious fire in the region of her premises and she hasn’t been able to get access to relevant documents,” he said.

“The issue seems to me to be a fairly straightforward one but I think it’s only fair that she be given the opportunity to present the best case that she is able to.”

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But Ms Reynolds said she didn’t think a week was enough time to complete the necessary research, which would involve scouring centuries of English law, dating back to the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215, “as to what is an agreement”.

To which Justice Riley responded “You can do all those things — it’s a matter for you — but I wouldn’t bother because they’re not really relevant.”