Addison v City Mutual Life Assurance Society Limited

The appellants, George Frederick Addison and Herbert Stanley MacDonald, sought to establish the priority of their lien over certain mortgages held by the respondent, The City Mutual Life Assurance Society Limited, in respect of licensed premises. The dispute concerned the validity and priority of these encumbrances, which had been the subject of prior litigation in the High Court and the Supreme Court of Queensland.

The High Court was required to determine the appropriate consequential relief to be granted following the enactment of the Liquor Acts Amendment Act 1932 (Q.). This amending legislation retrospectively validated securities previously declared invalid by the High Court, but included a proviso preserving the rights of parties to judgments given before a specified date. The court also had to consider the validity of the Supreme Court Judge's decision to vacate an earlier, unperfected order in light of the new legislation.

The Court reasoned that the vacation of the unperfected order by the Supreme Court Judge was a valid exercise of discretion. In administering consequential relief after the amending legislation, the Court held that remedies should be limited to protecting the appellants' lien from impairment by anything done under the mortgages, without adversely affecting any rights the mortgagee might have under the new statute. The Court found that the Supreme Court's order requiring a reversal of registration priority was inappropriate and should be discharged. Instead, the Court substituted a declaration that the mortgagee was bound, as against the appellants, to treat their lien as paramount to the security granted by the mortgages over the specified land. The Court ordered that the mortgagee pay the appellants' costs in the Supreme Court up to 4th July 1932, with parties bearing their own costs thereafter, and that the appellants pay the costs of the appeal.