Pigram v A-G (NSW) [1975] HCA 13

High Court of Australia Barwick C.J. McTiernan, Gibbs, Mason and Jacobs JJ. Pigram v A-G (NSW) [1975] HCA 13

ORDER Appeal dismissed with costs.

The following written judgments were delivered:—

May 19 Barwick C.J.

The appellant seeks the reversal of a decision of the Supreme Court of New South Wales (Nagle J.) which followed a decision of the Court of Appeal Division of the Supreme Court of New South Wales in a case of Mitchell v. McCaw upon the construction of the terms of a deed in identical terms so far as presently relevant with the deed on which the respondent sued in this case. The deed recites that the appellant, then employed as a teacher of the Department of Education of the State of New South Wales, had applied for leave of absence from his employment to enable him to accept a scholarship tenable at the University of New England and that the Department had agreed that the appellant should have such leave without pay but with financial assistance equivalent to half the salary to which he would be entitled as a teacher in the service of the Department, such leave to be treated as service with the Department for incremental and extended leave purposes.

The deed in its first clause bound the appellant to resume duty as a teacher on a stated day and for a period of three years (subsequently extended by deed to five years) "to be calculated from the date of his resuming duty as aforesaid faithfully diligently and thoroughly and in whatever locality or localities in the said State as may be directed by the Minister or the Director General or other proper authority of the said State and in all respects in accordance with and subject to the provisions of the Public Service Act, 1902, as amended, and the Public Instruction Act of 1880, as amended, and the Regulations from time to time in force under those Acts serve Her Majesty Her Heirs and Successors as a Teacher in the said Department and perform the duties required of or allotted to the Officer by the Minister or the Director General or other proper authority of the said State "