Bread Manufacturers (NSW) v Evans [1981] HCA 69

High Court of Australia Gibbs C.J. Mason, Murphy, Aickin and Wilson JJ. Bread Manufacturers (NSW) v Evans [1981] HCA 69

ORDER Appeal dismissed. Cross-appeal allowed. Order of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of New South Wales set aside and in lieu thereof order as follows: Appeal allowed. Judgment of Woodward J. set aside, and in lieu order:

(i) that it be declared that Prices Regulation Order No. 787, in so far as it purported to fix and declare the maximum price for the goods specified in the order, was invalid;

(ii) that the action be otherwise dismissed;

(iii) that the plaintiffs pay to the defendants two-thirds of the taxed costs of the action.

Further order that the present appellants pay to the present respondents two-thirds of the taxed costs of the appeal to this Court (including the cross-appeal) and to the Court of Appeal.

Cur. adv. vult.

The following written judgments were delivered:—

1981, Dec. 16 Gibbs C.J.

The appellants, the plaintiffs in the action in the Supreme Court, are a trade association representing bread manufacturers in New South Wales ("the Association") and five individual bread manufacturers. The object of the appellants in bringing the action was to establish that the maximum price at which bread or bread products might be sold within New South Wales was not, at the time when the proceedings were commenced, the subject of any valid order made by the Prices Commission pursuant to the Prices Regulation Act 1948 (NSW), as amended ("the Act"). For that purpose the appellants sought to show that each of three orders made by the Commission for the purpose of fixing the maximum prices at which bread and bread products might be sold by retail in New South Wales was void, in so far as that order purported to fix and declare the maximum price of the goods specified in it. The orders thus challenged were Prices Regulation Order No. 787 gazetted on 19 November 1979, Prices Regulation Order No. 792 gazetted on 3 March 1980 and Prices Regulation Order No. 798 gazetted on 14 July 1980. Each of these orders commenced by revoking the order which had previously been made by the Commission and was thought to be still in force, and then proceeded to fix the maximum price of the bread and bread products which it described. The argument submitted on behalf of the appellants was that in each case the revocation of the previous order was valid and effective, although the order fixing the price was not.