COOMEALLA ABORIGINAL HOUSING PTY LIMITED v. WENTWORTH SHIRE COUNCIL [1998] NSWLEC 107 (7 May 1998) [1998] NSWLEC 57

Land and Environment Court of New South Wales

CITATION : COOMEALLA ABORIGINAL HOUSING PTY LIMITED v. WENTWORTH SHIRE COUNCIL [1998] NSWLEC 107 (7 May 1998) [1998] NSWLEC 57 PARTIES : COOMEALLA ABORIGINAL HOUSING PTY LIMITED v. WENTWORTH SHIRE COUNCIL [1998] NSWLEC 107 (7 May 1998) FILE NUMBER(S) : 30117 of 1997 CORAM: Bignold J KEY ISSUES: :- LEGISLATION CITED: Local Government Act 1993 CASES CITED: DATES OF HEARING: 7 May 1998 EX TEMPORE JUDGMENT DATE : 05/07/1998

Mr B Green, Barrister LEGAL REPRESENTATIVES: Mr T Hale, Barrister

JUDGMENT:

By its amended Points of Defence filed on 4 May 1998 the Respondent in paragraph 5 asserts a lack of jurisdiction in the Court to hear and determine the Applicant's appeal by reason that the appeal is said to have been made outside the period specified by s574(3) of the Local Government Act 1993 , namely 30 days after the service of the rates notice.

It is common ground that the Applicant filed its appeal to the Court on 19 August 1997. Since the matter raised goes to the Court's jurisdiction, and with the parties' concurrence, I decided to determine immediately, and as a discrete matter, the question of jurisdiction.

The Respondent's assertion of lack of jurisdiction ultimately depends upon a finding of fact, namely that the 33 rate notices (the subject of the present appeal) addressed to the Applicant's Post Office box at Dareton Post Office were placed in that box before 20 July 1997.

Since each of the rate notices records 17 July 1997 as the date of posting and there is evidence from the Respondent's General Manager that on that day, he did post, prepaid at the Post Office Wentworth, all the Rate Notices issued for the rate period 1 July 1997 to 30 June 1998, realistically the Respondent's case depends upon a finding by the Court that the 33 rate notices were placed in the Applicant's private post office box at the Dareton Post Office on Friday 18 July and not Monday 21 July, as the Applicant's evidence would have it.