Howie v New South Wales Lawn Tennis Ground Ltd [1956] HCA 11

High Court of Australia Dixon C.J. McTiernan and Fullagar JJ. Howie v New South Wales Lawn Tennis Ground Ltd [1956] HCA 11

ORDER Appeal dismissed with costs.

Cur. adv. vult.

The Court delivered the following written judgment:

1956, Mar. 8 Dixon C.J., McTiernan and Fullagar JJ.

This is an appeal by special leave from a decree of the Supreme Court of New South Wales (McLelland J.) dismissing a suit in equity. The case is of an unusual character, and presents difficulties. Each of the plaintiffs claimed, and sought to enforce, a right to have certain seating accommodation exclusively reserved for him in the grandstand on a lawn tennis ground in Sydney, known as the "White City", the freehold of which is owned by the first-named defendant company. The facts are stated in full detail in the judgment of McLelland J. For present purposes, it will suffice to state them in somewhat more summary form.

Before 1920 the control of the game of lawn tennis in New South Wales was in the hands of a body known as the New South Wales Lawn Tennis Association Ltd., which had been incorporated under the Companies Acts in 1907 or 1908. This company owned and managed lawn tennis courts at Double Bay. In 1920 an opportunity arose of acquiring for the purposes of lawn tennis an area of land formerly used as an amusement park known as the White City. In order that this purchase might be effected, the existing company was wound up, and two new companies were formed. The one was incorporated under the same name—New South Wales Lawn Tennis Association Ltd.—and it will be convenient to refer to it as "the association". The other was incorporated under the name of New South Wales Lawn Tennis Ground Ltd., and it will be convenient to refer to it as "the ground company". The ground company was incorporated on 26th September 1921, and the association on 6th October 1921. These two companies are the defendant companies. The primary object of the ground company was to acquire, maintain and manage, tennis courts, while that of the association was to control the game of lawn tennis in New South Wales. The relations between the two bodies were governed by an agreement made on 7th October 1921, to which the liquidator of the old association was a party. The courts at Double Bay were sold, and the ground company in due course became, and it still is, the owner of the White City property.