Morton v Walker [1916] HCA 50

22 C.L.R.] OF AUSTRALIA. 203

{HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA.]

MORTON ; ' - ; % ie . APPELLANT ; INFORMANT, AND WALKER. é ? f : ' s . RESPONDENT. DerFENDANT,

ON APPEAL FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF VICTORIA.

Building Regulations—Irregularity in building—Certificate of official referees— 34. ¢. or A. Sufficiency—Melbourne Building Act 1849 (N.S.W.) (13 Vict. No. 39), sec. 13. 916,

aS

See, 13 of the Melbourne Building Act 1849 is, so far as is material, as Merpourne,

follows :—' Be it enacted with regard to any buildings . .°. external Sept 11. walls . . . and every other part of every building . . . which shall ""?™

be hereafter built rebuilt enlarged or altered within the said city" (of Mel- Grimtn C.., bourne) "contrary to the provisions hereof, so far as relates to the removal Patton: Trace, thereof, That if the same be not built . . . in the manner and of the *4 materials and in every other respect according to and in conformity with the several rules and directions which are in this Act particularly specified, and

if any person build or begin to build . . . contrary thereunto, and if in cither of such cases it so appear by the certificate of the official referees, then

the said building . . . or such part thereof so irregularly built . .

shall be deemed a nuisance; and that thereupon it shall be the duty of

the surveyor, and he is hereby directed and required, to summon the builder before any two justices of the peace; . . . and that thereupon it shall

be the duty of such builder, and he is hereby required, to enter into a recog- nizanee in such sum as the said justices shall appoint for abating and taking down the same," &e,

Held, that a certificate by the official referees, which, alter setting out that they had had submitted to them copies of notices sorved on the defendant to amend irregularities existing in certain buildings " the said irregularities being that the walls are not built of brick laid in mortar to produce solid