Pastoral Investment Land & Loan Pty Ltd v Central Coast Council [2020] NSWLEC 85

Land and Environment Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Pastoral Investment Land & Loan Pty Ltd v Central Coast Council [2020] NSWLEC 85 Hearing dates: 29 June 2020 Date of orders: 08 July 2020 Decision date: 08 July 2020 Jurisdiction: Class 1 Before: Preston CJ Decision: The Court orders: (1) The appeal is upheld. (2) The decision and orders of Senior Commissioner Dixon made on 11 March 2020 are set aside. (3) The proceedings are remitted to the Senior Commissioner for determination in accordance with the decision of the Court. (4) The respondent is to pay the applicant's costs of the appeal. Catchwords: APPEAL - appeal against Commissioner's decision on questions of law – dismissal of proceedings for want of prosecution with due despatch under r 12.7 UCPR – whether misdirection, misconstruction and misapplication of r 12.7 – absence of assessment of significance of impacts on threated fauna species – significance assessment not a jurisdictional fact – absence of significance assessment not fatal to determining development application – absence of significance assessment did not delay proceedings – failure to consider and balance prejudice to parties by dismissing or not dismissing proceedings – whether denial of procedural fairness on summary dismissal – failure to give fair opportunity to be heard before dismissal – remitter of proceedings to Commissioner Legislation Cited: Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 Biodiversity Conservation (Savings and Transitional) Regulation 2017 Civil Procedure Act 2005 ss 56-60, 86 Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 ss 5A, 56A, 78A, 8.7 Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 r 12.7 Cases Cited: Baulkham Hills Shire Council v Basemount Pty Ltd (2003) 126 LGERA 339; [2003] NSWCA 189 Bi v Mourad [2010] NSWCA 17 Castle Constructions Pty Ltd v North Sydney Council (2007) 155 LGERA 52; [2007] NSWCA 164 Fairey v Fairey (No 2) [2000] NSWCA 173 Ghosh v NineMSN (2015) 90 NSWLR 595; [2015] NSWCA 334 Gorczynski v Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Ltd [2016] NSWCA 170 Hoser v Hartcher [1999] NSWSC 527 House v The King (1936) 55 CLR 499; [1936] HCA 40 In the matter of Punters Show Pty Ltd [2017] NSWCA 605 Initial Action Pty Ltd v Woollahra Municipal Council (2018) 236 LGERA 256; [2018] NSWLEC 118 Newcastle and Hunter Valley Speleological Society Inc v Upper Hunter Shire Council (2010) 210 LGERA 126; [2010] NSWLEC 48 Pacanowski v Simon Wakeman and Associates [2009] NSWCA 402 Pastoral Investment Land & Loan Pty Ltd v Central Coast Council [2020] NSWLEC 1135 Sandra Lazarus, Michelle Lazarus and Jessica Lazarus v Director of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (No 2) [2015] NSWSC 1390 Singh v Singh [2017] NSWCA 15 State of New South Wales v Plaintiff A [2012] NSWCA 248 Stollznow v Calvert (1980) 2 NSWLR 749 Timbarra and Protection Coalition Inc v Ross Mining NL (1999) 46 NSWLR 55 Weston v Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd (2011) 83 ACSR 206; [2011] NSWSC 433 Category: Principal judgment Parties: Pastoral Investment Land & Loan Pty Ltd (Appellant) Central Coast Council (Respondent) Representation: Counsel: Mr J R Young, Mr M Fozzard (Appellant) Mr I Hemmings SC, Ms L Nurpuri (Respondent)