BUTT & OWNERS CORPORATION UNITS PLAN NO 1725 (Units Title)

The matter before the Court was an application by Butt, a unit owner, against the Owners Corporation of Units Plan No 1725. The dispute centred on the validity of a resolution passed at an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) of the owners corporation on 18 July 2012, which approved a resolution to levy sinking fund contributions. The issue at hand was whether the resolution was properly passed, given the presence or absence of a quorum at the meeting. Specifically, the question was whether proxies should be counted in determining whether a quorum was present at the meeting, as defined under section 3.9(1) of Schedule 3 to the Act.

The Court was tasked with interpreting the statutory requirement for a quorum at a general meeting of an owners corporation. The relevant provision, section 3.9(1)(a), stipulated that a motion could only be considered if there was present a quorum made up by people entitled to vote on the motion in relation to not less than half the total number of units. The Court needed to determine what constituted a "person entitled to vote" for the purposes of this provision, specifically whether it included proxies. The Court considered the wording of the provision and the broader context of the Act, including the absence of any specific exclusion of proxies from the definition of "person entitled to vote."

The Court concluded that the correct interpretation of section 3.9(1)(a) was that proxies could count towards the quorum. This interpretation was supported by the language of the provision and a consideration of the Act as a whole. The Court found that there was indeed a quorum present at the EGM of 18 July 2012, as proxies were properly included in the count. Consequently, the resolution approving the sinking fund contributions was valid, and the owners corporation was entitled to set aside this resolution and reconsider the issue.

ORDERS:
The resolution of 18 July 2012 approving the sinking fund contribution for the owners corporation units plan 1725 for the 12 month period commencing 1 May 2012 is set aside.