Butler v Egg & Egg Pulp Marketing Board [1966] HCA 38

High Court of Australia Taylor, Menzies and Owen JJ. Butler v Egg & Egg Pulp Marketing Board [1966] HCA 38

ORDER Appeal allowed. Order of Supreme Court set aside and in lieu thereof order that Question 1 in the special case be answered as follows:The damages are to be assessed as the value of the said eggs at the date of the conversions by the appellants less the sums which the respondent would have paid to the appellants if the appellants had delivered the said eggs to the respondent upon the dates when the appellants converted the said eggs,it being unnecessary to answer the second question therein and that judgment be entered for the respondent (plaintiff) against the appellant (defendant) company in the sum of $1,283.33 and against the other appellants (defendants) in the sum of $916.67 with costs to be taxed (including costs of pleadings) save and except the costs of the special case herein and that the respondent pay to the appellants their costs of the special case. The respondent to pay the appellants' costs of the appeal.

Cur. adv. vult.

The following written judgments were delivered:—

June 2 Taylor and Owen JJ.

The respondent Board brought an action against the appellants claiming damages for the conversion of a quantity of eggs, the property of the Board. The appellants were the "producers" of the eggs and the eggs were a "commodity" within the meaning of the Marketing of Primary Products Act 1958 Vict. and, by that Act and proclamations issued under it, the property in the eggs, when they came into existence, was divested from the appellants and vested in and became the absolute property of the Board. The rights and interests of the appellants in the eggs thereupon were converted into claims for payment in accordance with the Act. A Marketing Board set up under the Act is required to sell the commodity in relation to which it is constituted and which is vested in it and the producer of such a commodity is directed, with some exceptions not material in the present case, to deliver the commodity produced by him to the Board and forbidden to sell or deliver it to anyone other than the Board. The Board is required, subject to the provisions of the Act, to pay to each producer of the commodity delivered to and sold by it his proportion of the net proceeds of the sale of all the commodity of the same quality or standard delivered to it during such periods of time as are prescribed and is authorized to deduct from the proceeds of its sales expenditure incurred by it in the course of its administration. The foregoing provisions are to be found in Div. 1 of Pt. 1 of the Act, a division which relates to Marketing Boards generally. Division 2 of Pt. 1 relates specifically to the Egg and Egg Pulp Marketing Board and there is some overlapping of its provisions with those contained in Div. 1 but for the present purposes it is unnecessary to set these out.