Sandown Park Hotel Pty Ltd v The Queen [1963] HCA 45

High Court of Australia Dixon C.J. Kitto, Taylor, Menzies and Owen JJ. Sandown Park Hotel Pty Ltd v The Queen [1963] HCA 45

ORDER Appeal dismissed with costs.

The judgment of the Court was delivered by Dixon C.J.:—

Dixon C.J., Kitto, Taylor, Menzies and Owen JJ.

This is an appeal instituted as of right against a judgment or order of the Supreme Court of Victoria, dismissing an application for a writ of mandamus directed to the Licensing Court. At the outset of the argument for the appellant, a question was raised as to whether an appeal lay as of right in view of the fact that the order sought was for a prerogative writ and would not of its very nature determine the actual merits of the litigation between the parties and decide them judicially so that the order itself would involve the requisite sum of money. This question was not pursued. We preferred to hear an argument on the merits of the appeal. Obviously, the merits of the appeal would govern not only an appeal as of right but also any question, if there were one, of the grant of special leave.

The case is of a rather curious character. The Sandown Park Hotel Proprietary Limited applied for a new licence to the Licensing Court. An objection was made by a person put on the record as "an objector", and the question was raised whether, as a matter of law or in its discretion, the Licensing Court should refuse the application for a licence because of the association of the applicant with the Carlton and United Breweries Ltd.

We shall not describe the facts. They have been dealt with both in the Licensing Court and in the Full Court. The argument was that the considerations which led the Licensing Court to refuse the licence were inadmissible. The discretion of the Licensing Court to refuse a licence was not denied, but it was said that all the considerations which they took into account were inadmissible, either because they were impliedly excluded by the Act or not left open by the Act to the Licensing Court, or for reasons which, on an examination of the Act, showed that they ought not to have been regarded as relevant.