Simms v West [1961] HCA 62

High Court of Australia Dixon C.J. McTiernan, Kitto, Taylor and Windeyer JJ. Simms v West [1961] HCA 62

ORDER Appeal allowed with costs. Order that the conviction and order of the Court of Petty Sessions at Ravenshoe be quashed. In lieu thereof order that the complaint be dismissed. Order that the respondent pay the appellant's costs of the complaint and proceedings therein in Petty Sessions and refer it to the District Registrar to fix such costs as may seem to him reasonable.

Cur. adv. vult.

The following written judgments were delivered:—

Oct. 23 Dixon C.J.

Section 23 (1) of The State Transport Facilities Acts, 1946 to 1959 Q. provides that a person shall not use or permit or allow to be used on any road at any time a vehicle for the carriage of goods unless at the time those goods are carried upon that vehicle under and in accordance with a provision of Pt III of the Act. On 2nd September 1959 a Ford truck loaded with sawn maple timber was used on roads for the carriage of the timber from Ravenshoe to the wharf at Cairns. There was no permit for the vehicle or its journey, and having regard to the nature of the load and the purpose of using the road, the vehicle was not used in accordance with any provision of Pt III of the Act.

The defendant is the managing director of the North Queensland Timber Traders Pty. Ltd. and has been convicted under s. 23 as a person responsible for the use of the vehicle, he and not the company having for some reason been chosen as the defendant. His defence was that the timber was being carried in the course of transit from the timber mills in Ravenshoe by road and sea to the purchasers of the timber in Sydney, and that to prevent carrying the timber by road to the wharf at Cairns for shipment was to interfere with the freedom of inter-State trade and commerce.