Bennett v Cooper [1948] HCA 29

High Court of Australia Latham C.J. Dixon and McTiernan JJ. Bennett v Cooper [1948] HCA 29

ORDER Appeal allowed with costs. Order of Supreme Court set aside. In lieu thereof order nisi discharged with costs.

Cur. adv. vult.

The following written judgments were delivered:—

Oct. 18 Latham C.J.

This is an appeal from an order of the Supreme Court of Western Australia (Walker J.) reviewing a decision of a Resident Magistrate upon charges against the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes Grand Lodge of Western Australia under the Grand Lodge of England and against F. R. Bennett and S. Bawden for offences against the Licensing Act 1911-1946, s. 203, sub-s. (1). That section provides in sub-s. (1) as follows:—"If any liquor is supplied or sold on the premises of an unregistered club, the person supplying or selling such liquor, and every person authorising the supply or sale of such liquor, commits an offence against this Act."

So far as the Grand Lodge is concerned, the magistrate held that there was no evidence that the Grand Lodge was cognizant or approved of the circumstances under which liquor was consumed on the premises of the Order and the complaint was dismissed. The complaint against the defendants Bawden and Bennett was dismissed on the ground that the Grand Lodge was not an unregistered club within the meaning of the Act because the Order did not satisfy the conditions specified by s. 183 of the Act as conditions which should be shown to exist before a club could be registered. Upon review Walker J. upheld the dismissal of the complaint against the Grand Lodge on the ground that E. H. Egglestone, who was the treasurer of the Order, was acting personally and privately and not as an agent of the Grand Lodge in relation to the dealing with the liquor at a meeting of a minor lodge, the Leederville Lodge, at which, it was alleged, liquor was unlawfully supplied. As to the complaint against Bennett and Bawden, Walker J. was of opinion that the Grand Lodge was a club which was required to be registered under the Act, that liquor was supplied on its premises and that therefore Bennett and Bawden should have been convicted. There are 35,000 members of the Order who are interested in the application of the Licensing Act to meetings of the lodges of the Order, and special leave to appeal was granted by this court from the decision of the Supreme Court in the cases of Bennett and Bawden.