Brosnan v The King

The case of *Brosnan v The King* involved an application for special leave to appeal to the High Court of Australia from a decision of the Supreme Court of Queensland. The dispute concerned the renewal of a licensed victualler's licence for the Victoria Hotel in South Brisbane. The applicant, John Brosnan, held a licence for the hotel and sought to renew it to include significantly larger, newly constructed adjoining premises. The Licensing Authority had granted this renewal, but certain ratepayers sought to quash the licence, leading to the Supreme Court's decision.

The central legal issue before the High Court was whether the renewal of a licensed victualler's licence could lawfully extend to substantially larger premises than those originally licensed, particularly in an area where a "third resolution" – that no new licences should be granted – had been adopted and remained in force. Section 124 of the *Licensing Act 1885* (Qd.) stipulated that if this resolution was adopted, the Licensing Authority could not grant a certificate for a licence for any premises unless a licence was current and in force for those premises at the time the resolution was adopted.

The High Court, in refusing special leave to appeal, affirmed the reasoning of the majority of the Supreme Court. The Court held that a renewal of a licence could only be granted in respect of substantially the same premises as those in existence when the third resolution was adopted. While not definitively stating that *any* addition to premises would disqualify a renewal, the Court emphasised that the premises for which a renewal was sought must be substantially identical to the originally licensed premises. In this instance, the newly constructed premises were considerably larger than the original hotel, and the Court found that a conclusion by the Licensing Authority that the premises were substantially identical would have been unreasonable given the evidence. Therefore, the Supreme Court's decision to quash the licence was upheld.