Trade Practices Commission v Nashco Pty Ltd & Ors [1984] FCA 324

IN _THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALTA QUEENSLAND DISTRICT REGISTRY

GENERAL DIVISION

BETWEEN :

JUDGMENT No. umnccecht GS...

TRADE PRACTICES COMMISSION Applicant NASHCO PTY LIMITED

First Respondent

GARGEVA PTY LIMITED

Second Respondent JOSEPH PATRICK NASH

Third Respondent

NEVILLE FRANCIS McCOSH Fourth Respondent

RONALD JOHN JAMES DAVIS Fifth Respondent

No. Qld G 53 of 1984

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ORDER

JUDGE MAKING ORDER Neaves J.

DATE OF ORDER 10 October 1984

WHERE MADE Brisbane

THE COURT ORDERS THAT:

1. The application by the second and fourth respondents be dismissed.

2. The second and fourth respondents pay the applicant's costs of the application.

IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA QUEENSLAND DISTRICT REGISTRY

GENERAL DIVISION

BETWEEN :

CORAM: Neaves Jd. DATE: 10 OCTOBER 1984

) ) ) No. Qld G 53 of 1984 ) )

TRADE PRACTICES COMMISSION

Applicant NASHCO PTY LIMITED

First Respondent GARGEVA PITY LIMITED

Second Respondent JOSEPH PATRICK NASH

Third Respondent NEVILLE FRANCIS McCOSH

Fourth Respondent RONALD JOHN JAMES DAVIS

Fifth Respondent

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT

Neaves J.

A proceeding is pending in this Court at the suit

of the Trade Practices Commission ("the Commission") against

Nashco Pty. Limited ("the first respondent"), Gargeva Pty.

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Limited ("the second respondent"), Joseph Patrick Nash ("the third respondent"), Neville Francis McCosh ("the fourth respondent") and Ronald John James Davis ("the fifth respondent") for pecuniary penalties and injunctive relief

in respect of certain alleged contraventions of paragraph

45(2)(a) of the Trade Practices Act 1974 ("the Act").

The statement of claim filed on behalf of the Commission alleges that each of the first, second and fifth respondents at all material times carried on business as a petrol retailer at Bundaberg, Queensland, those businesses being respectively carried on under the business names "Shell Speedy Service Station", "Ampol Canelanders Service Station" and "Bundaberg Star Service Station". It is further alleged that on or about 17 February 1983 the first respondent by its servant or agent the third respondent, the second respondent by its servant or agent the fourth respondent, and the fifth respondent made an arrangement or arrived at an understanding between themselves and other petrol retailers at Bundaberg whereby the minimum retail price of super-grade petrol supplied, or to be supplied, at Bundaberg by the parties to the arrangement or understanding would be fixed or maintained at a particular level. The material provisions of that arrangement or understanding, so it is alleged, had a purpose, or had or were likely to have an effect, falling within sub-section 45A(1) of the Act.