Carroll v Byron Shire Council

Land and Environment Court

New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation:	Carroll v Byron Shire Council [2019] NSWLEC 52
Hearing dates:	12 April 2019
Date of orders:	12 April 2019
Decision date:	12 April 2019
Jurisdiction:	Class 6
Before:	Sheahan J
Decision:	Leave to appeal refused, with costs.
Catchwords:	APPEAL: Application for leave to appeal out of time – refused because statute-barred – costs.
Legislation Cited:	Crimes (Appeal and Review) Act 2001
Cases Cited:	Fletcher v Byron Shire Council [2010] NSWLEC 185 Fletcher v Byron Shire Council (No 2) [2010] NSWLEC 226 Hussain v Liverpool City Council [2014] NSWLEC 45 Thaler v Cooma Monaro Shire Council [2015] NSWLEC 119
Category:	Principal judgment
Parties:	Patrick Carroll (Appellant) Byron Shire Council (Respondent)
Representation:	Counsel: Litigant in Person (Appellant) Mr D Baird, solicitor (Respondent)   Solicitors: Litigant in Person (Appellant) Marsdens Law Group (Respondent)
File Number(s):	2019/47097
Decision under appeal	Court or tribunal: Byron Local Court Jurisdiction: N/A Citation: N/A Date of Decision: 16 March 2017 Before: Magistrate J A Linden File Number(s): 2016/335030

EXTEMPORE Judgment

1. Mr Carroll filed in this Court, on 11 February 2019, an appeal against the severity of a sentence imposed upon him by Byron Local Court on 10 February 2017, after he had challenged two penalty infringement notices (“PIN”) issued to him, on 19 November 2015, for displaying certain signs in the Bryon area, without approval.

2. By February 2017, he appears to have relocated to the Gladstone area of Queensland, and he is now located at Smithfield near Cairns. Those relocations have hindered his communication with the Council and the Courts, as his filed documents make clear. He has come all the way from Cairns to Sydney for the List Judge directions hearing scheduled for this morning.

3. Byron Local Court imposed, in his absence, fines of $10,000 and $20,000, and a costs order for $1500, whereas the two challenged PINs were for $3000 each.

4. Mr Carroll sought annulment of the February 2017 fines and orders, but, rightly or wrongly, he failed to appear when that application was listed on 16 March 2017.

5. His application was dismissed, again in his absence, and the State authorities have, since early 2018, been seeking to enforce the Byron Local Court’s fines.

6. His efforts to obtain a grant of legal aid to deal with the resulting situation have been unsuccessful, and the Court’s duty lawyer scheme stopped assisting him in August 2018.

7. He also considers that he received, over time, conflicting information and advice regarding his situation.

8. He accepts (summons par 5) that his “petition for leave to appeal out of time is being made nearly two years after the default judgment on 16 March 2017”, but he submits that it is in the “interests of justice that [his] appeal be granted”.

9. On 5 April 2019, he filed a document entitled “Additional Material”, which is in the nature of submissions.

10. He submits that his appeal is made under s 32 of the NSW Crimes (Appeal and Review) Act 2001, and that “a late application to…