MARKET CITY PROPERTIES PTY LTD v SYDNEY MARKET AUTHORITY [1997] NSWCA 196

MARKET CITY PROPERTIES PTY LTD v SYDNEY MARKET AUTHORITY

SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COURT OF APPEAL EQUITY DIVISION

MASON P, MEAGHER and POWELL JJA 25 February 1997, 25 February 1997 [1997] NSWCA 196

Interpretation of instruments — Deed in form of licence between Sydney Market Authority (SMA) and appellant regulating use and occupation of Paddy's Market site — dispute as to whether the appellant is entitled under the Licence to conduct a market at the site on weekdays — powers and functions of SMA regulated by Sydney Market Authority Act 1968 (the Act) — dispute as to meaning of 'public market' in Licence with reference to the term 'public market' in the Act — whether 'public market' confined to a market at which some farm produce sold — statutory construction of term with reference to legislature background of powers and functions of SMA

Words and Phrases — "public market"

Sydney Market Authority Act 1968, s3, s11(1), s15(7) Associated Newspapers Ltd v Wavish (1956) 96 CLR 526; applied.

Mason P Ex tempore

Sydney Market authority, to which I shall refer as "SMA", is a statutory corporation constituted under the Sydney Market Authority Act 1968. S11(1) provides that it may within the County of Cumberland provide, maintain, control and manage public markets for the sale or disposal of farm produce and other merchandise. For the purposes of and subject to the Act SMA is authorised to perform a wide range of powers and functions set out in s11(2). They include the power set out in para(e) thereof, namely, granting "to wholesalers, merchants, producers of farm produce and vendors of any kind of merchandise and to other persons a right to use and occupy for the sale and disposal of farm produce and other merchandise or for any purpose approved by the Authority, any portion or portions of a public market'.