Credit (Amendment) Act 1991 (ACT)

The case involved the application of the Credit (Amendment) Act 1991 to amendments made to the Credit Act 1985. The Credit (Amendment) Act 1991 amended the Credit Act 1985 to change the maximum allowable account charges and to allow the Australian Capital Territory Civil and Administrative Tribunal to provide directions for the payment of amounts owed by debtors. The Act also introduced a stay of civil penalty pending the Tribunal's decision and inserted a new section allowing the Tribunal to make general orders varying civil penalties. The case came before the Australian Capital Territory Supreme Court to determine the operation of these amendments.

The legal issues the court was required to decide related to the retrospective operation of the amendments and their application to existing contracts and proceedings. Specifically, the court had to determine whether the amendments applied to contracts entered into before the commencement of the Credit (Amendment) Act 1991 and whether they applied to proceedings pending in the Tribunal at the time of the Act's commencement.

The court held that the amendments applied retrospectively to contracts entered into before the commencement of the Credit (Amendment) Act 1991. The court found that the language of the amendments, particularly the transitional provisions, indicated an intention to apply the amendments retrospectively. The court also held that the amendments applied to proceedings pending in the Tribunal at the time of the Act's commencement, except where the contraventions or failures to which the proceedings related occurred before that commencement.

The final orders of the court were that the amendments applied retrospectively to contracts entered into before the commencement of the Credit (Amendment) Act 1991 and to proceedings pending in the Tribunal at the time of the Act's commencement, except where the contraventions or failures to which the proceedings related occurred before that commencement.