TANDOU LTD v WESTERN LANDS COMMISSIONER [1994] NSWCA 303

TANDOU LTD v WESTERN LANDS COMMISSIONER

SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COURT OF APPEAL

GLEESON CJ KIRBY P MEAGHER JA 15 September 1994, 13 October 1994

[1994] NSWCA 303 WESTERN LANDS ACT — Redetermination of rental for leases in perpetuity.

HELD — dismissing the appeal — the amendments to the Western Lands Act in 1989, upon their true construction, had retrospective application and produced the result that, where the subject land, although only set apart for grazing, could be used for grazing and agriculture, the provisions previously applicable to redetermining rent for land set apart for grazing and agriculture would apply.

STATUTES — INTERPRETATION HELD — (per Gleeson CJ, Kirby P and Meagher JA agreeing). The rule referred to in Maxwell v Murphy (1957) 96 CLR 216, concerning avoiding constructions which give statutes retrospective operation, and the subordinate rule referred to in Lauri vy Renad [1892] 3 Ch 402 at 421, must yield to s33 of the Interpretation Act 1987.

ORDERS

Appeal dismissed with costs.

Gleeson CJ This is an appeal, by leave, from a judgment of Bignold J in the Land and Environment Court resolving a point of law which the parties agreed would decide the result of the proceedings in that court. Those proceedings in turn involved an appeal to the Land and Environment Court from a decision of the Local Land Board at Broken Hill redetermining the rent of certain land at Menindee held under the Western Lands Act 1901.

The point of law concerns the effect upon such a redetermination of amendments that were made to the Western Lands Act in 1989.

The land in question is held by the appellant under four leases in perpetuity. The leases were granted at different dates, two of them in 1936, one in 1945, and one in 1947. Nothing turns upon the precise dates. The scheme of the Act provides for rental under such leases to be redetermined every ten years. For reasons that are explained in the judgment of Bignold J, and do not require detailed examination, the rental under two of the leases became due for redetermination on 12 October 1984, the rental under one of the leases became due for redetermination on 26 November 1985, and the rental under the remaining lease became due for redetermination on 28 September 1987.