Chairman, National Crime Authority & Anor v Flack, Margaret Elizabeth [1998] FCA 932

FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA TORT - conversion - goods discovered on respondent's leased residential premises and seized by officers of the National Crime Authority under a search warrant - possessory rights of NCA under a search warrant - whether respondent, as sole occupier of residential premises, has right to possession of goods she does not own - whether occupier has manifested a sufficient intention to exercise control over the premises and all things which might be in it - whether intention is a rebuttable presumption of fact. EVIDENCE - whether Jones v Dunkel inference adverse to respondent should be drawn where respondent did not give evidence at trial.

Crimes Act 1914 (Cth) - ss 3ZV, 10 Crimes (Search Warrants and Powers of Arrest) Amendment Act 1994 (Cth) Customs Act 1901 (Cth) - s 233B(1)(c) National Crime Authority Act 1984 (Cth) - ss 25, 25(9) Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) - s 527C

Parker v British Airways Board [1982] QB 1004 - applied Bridges v Hawkesworth (1851) 21 LJ (QB) 75 - considered Russell v Wilson (1923) 33 CLR 539 - distinguished South Staffordshire Water Company v Sharman [1896] 2 QB 44 - considered Elwes v Brigg Gas Company (1886) 33 Ch D 562 - considered Willey v Synan (1936-7) 57 CLR 200 - referred to Johnson v Pickering [1907] 2 KB 437 - cited Re Cohen [1953] Ch 88 - cited Ghani v Jones [1970] 1 QB 693 - considered Levine v O'Keefe [1930] VR 70 - referred to Challenge Plastics Pty Ltd v Collector of Customs (1993) 42 FCR 397 - referred to Jones v Dunkel (1959) 101 CLR 298 - considered Johns v Australian Securities Commission (1993) 178 CLR 408 - considered Semayne's Case 5 Co Rep 91a - referred to

Pollock F and Wright RS, Essay on Possession in the Common Law 1990 Law Press Fleming JG, The Law of Torts (8th ed) 1992 Law Book Company Fuller LL, Legal Fictions 1967 Stanford University Press