Hughes & Vale Pty Ltd v New South Wales [No 2] [1955] HCA 28

High Court of Australia Dixon C.J. McTiernan, Williams, Webb, Fullagar, Kitto and Taylor JJ. Hughes & Vale Pty Ltd v New South Wales [No 2] [1955] HCA 28

ORDER Plaintiffs' demurrer to the defence allowed. Judgment in the suit entered for the plaintiffs with costs. Declare that s. 3 (3) and the Third Schedule of the State Transport (Co-ordination) Amendment Act 1954 (No. 48 of 1954) N.S.W. is invalid. Declare that the Motor Vehicles Taxation Management Act 1949-1951 N.S.W. and the Motor Vehicles (Taxation) Act 1951 N.S.W. cannot validly apply in respect of vehicles used exclusively in or for the purpose of inter-State trade commerce or intercourse.

Cur. adv. vult.

The following written judgments were delivered:—

ADDENDUM.

June 9 Dixon C.J., McTiernan and Webb JJ.

This suit comes before us upon a plaintiffs' demurrer to the defence which the defendants answer, as they are entitled to do, by contending that in any case the plaintiffs' statement of claim is bad in substance. The relief sought by the statement of claim consists in declarations of right concerning the validity of certain statutes of New South Wales. After the decision of the Privy Council in Hughes & Vale Pty. Ltd. v. State of New South Wales [No. 1] [2] had been given on 17th November last year the Parliament of New South Wales passed the State Transport (Co-ordination) Amendment Act 1954 (No. 48). It was assented to on 16th December 1954. Their Lordships had decided that the licensing provisions of the State Transport (Co-ordination) Act 1931-1951 N.S.W., considered apart from s. 3 (2) of that Act (a severability provision) were invalid as contravening s. 92 of the Constitution but that in view of s. 3 (2) the provisions of the Act were not invalid in so far as they applied to intra-State transport. Accordingly a declaration was made that the provisions of the Act requiring application to be made for a licence, and all provisions consequent thereon, were inapplicable to the plaintiff company while operating its vehicles in the course and for the purposes of inter-State trade or to the vehicles while so operated. An object of the Amendment Act of 1954 was to introduce a new set of provisions applicable to persons operating vehicles in the course and for the purposes of inter-State trade and the vehicles while so operated and expressly to confine the application of the former provisions to intra-State transportation. The same plaintiff company, with an individual as co-plaintiff, now sues for a declaration that the new provisions, or the more material of them, are invalid. But the plaintiffs also seek declarations that the Motor Vehicles (Taxation) Act 1951 N.S.W. and the Motor Vehicles Taxation Management Act 1949-1951 N.S.W. are invalid. The suit is brought against the State of New South Wales but the Minister for Transport, the Commissioners for Motor Transport and for Main Roads and a member of an advisory committee to be mentioned are named as co-defendants.