Looking back over the span of iNOW! operations, one theme dominates – stability of our interpretation system. Courts regularly proclaim that the basics are now well-established – a ‘settled approach of some clarity’1. No longer is it right to talk about interpretation as a ‘fashion industry’, if indeed it ever really was. The idea we are merely awaiting …
Gamble v Kingborough Council [2020] TASFC 7
A coffee cart parked at a motel needed a permit if it involved a ‘use’ in relation to land. Here ‘use … includes the manner of utilising land’, with ‘land’ defined to include buildings, structures and ‘any estate, interest, easement, servitude, privilege or right in or over land’5. On being charged …
Elliot v ACT Revenue [2020] ACAT 72
Keeping up with interpretation intel is not easy. One thing is that judges are driven to restate settled principles, picking and choosing what suits, often with quotes, but just as often in their own words – judicial wheel reinvention, perhaps. Might there be a better way, perhaps some kind of legislated code?
There …
Voicu v Strata Plan No 1624 [2020] NSWCA 52
An apartment dispute commenced in the local court, but the appeal was to the district court. Laws regulating district court costs were replaced by new legislation, but the old provisions continued to apply to proceedings commenced before 1 July 20159. Which provisions applied to costs in the appeal?
Basten …
Will v Brighton [2020] NSWCA 355
This case on the meaning of ‘pest animals’11 exposes a difference of view about use of dictionaries12. Bell JA (at [52]) said ‘care must be taken not to place too heavy reliance’ on them. Dictionaries provide no guidance on context and are ‘rarely determinative’. She would not fully ignore them, however, …
The reach of extrinsic materials in the world of statutory interpretation can be misunderstood. A good place to start for guidance is a High Court case last year1. Two key principles are that extrinsic materials cannot displace the meaning of the text, nor may they be substituted for it2. A related point is that these materials …
SafeWork NSW v BOC Limited [2020] NSWCA 306
BOC was acquitted of offences after installing gas lines to a hospital operating theatre. Nitrous oxide lines were wrongly labelled as ‘oxygen’. One baby died and another suffered brain damage. SafeWork sought review of the acquittal after final orders were made. BOC pleaded ‘double jeopardy’ – that is, they could not be …
Bay Street Appeal [2020] FCAFC 192
Allsop CJ (at [4]) cautions against so-called ‘virtual judgments’. The same judge has written about why judicial work should not be done by ‘judge-bots’7. But that is not what he is getting at in this instance.
What Allsop CJ is concerned about is treating court judgments literally ‘as if they were the …
N & M Martin Holdings v FCT [2020] FCA 1186
In this case, Steward J was asked to go against an earlier case about when capital gains arise ‘from’ a CGT event9 – he declined. The taxpayer pointed to various ‘anomalous outcomes’ if the earlier case was followed. Arguments like this are often framed at the outer limits …
Carter v FCT [2020] FCAFC 150
Gummow J once singled out tax officers as needing to better understand the general law against which tax disputes often play out12. This trusts case may illustrate the point. It was argued that disclaimer of a present entitlement in a later year was ineffective. In a payroll tax context, it had been …
