Questão jurídica principal
Whether the appellate court violated the defendant's right to be heard by not serving a substantial reply for comment.
Decisão extraída
Yes. The defendant had a constitutional and Convention-based right to inspect and comment on all decisive submissions, and the unserved reply was relied upon by the court.
Fundamentação extraída
A party must be able to comment on new substantive submissions; absent protected secrecy interests, failure to transmit such a reply breaches Art. 29(2) BV and Art. 6(1) ECHR. Because the right to be heard is formally protected, the decision had to be set aside without examining further complaints.