AK Ippolito v Family Farm [2026] FCA 780
This case turns on the meaning of ‘benefit’ for certain Corporations Act purposes, defined as follows – benefit ‘(a) means any benefit, whether by way of payment of cash or otherwise …’. Wheatley J noted that statutory definitions are given their ordinary meaning, and that limitations are not read into them ‘unless clearly required’ by terms or context.
Noting that ‘benefit’ is defined by reference to that same term, the judge said there was no rule against construing the words of a definition ‘by reference to the terms that those words define’. This simply forms part of the context within which the definition must be construed, and there is no inflexible rule against it4.
This principle is from Episode 136 of interpretation NOW!
Footnotes:
4 SkyCity [2024] HCA 37 [32], cf Campbell [2026] NSWSC 1319 [104].