Milne v A-G (Tas) [1956] HCA 48

High Court of Australia Dixon C.J. McTiernan, Williams, Fullagar and Taylor JJ. Milne v A-G (Tas) [1956] HCA 48

ORDER Order that respondents be relieved from the requirement of filing and serving a notice of cross-appeal under O. 70, r. 13, of the Rules of this Court. Vary Order of Supreme Court of Tasmania by adding thereto an order that the plaintiffs pay the defendants' taxed costs of the action. Subject to such variation, appeal dismissed with costs.

Cur. adv. vult.

The Court delivered the following written judgment:—

Aug. 22 Dixon C.J., McTiernan, Williams, Fullagar and Taylor JJ.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the Supreme Court of Tasmania (Morris C.J.) in an action in which nineteen plaintiffs sued the Attorney-General for Tasmania, the Closer Settlement Board of Tasmania and two other defendants, claiming certain declarations of right and other relief. Each of the plaintiffs sued severally, but the claims of all arose out of the same set of circumstances and stood on the same footing. After the issue of the writ it was agreed that pleadings should be delivered, and the action should proceed, as if one of the plaintiffs, Edward Nicholson Milne, were the sole plaintiff. The defendants delivered a counterclaim with their defence. The learned Chief Justice gave judgment for the defendants on both claim and counterclaim. Formal judgment was entered against all the nineteen plaintiffs, and all appeal, but it will be convenient to refer, for the purposes of this judgment, to Milne as if he had been a sole plaintiff and a sole appellant.

The basis of the plaintiff's claim is contractual, but it arises by reason of certain legislation enacted in and after 1945, which had for its object the settlement on the land in Tasmania of discharged members of the forces who had served in the war of 1939-1945.