Duke Unley Pty Ltd v The Corporation of the City of Unley

The appeal concerned a dispute between Duke Unley Pty Ltd and The Corporation of the City of Unley regarding land owned by the Council. The core of the dispute revolved around whether the Council held the land subject to a trust for public parking facilities, as requested by ratepayers in a Memorial presented in 1971. The ratepayers had offered to repay the Council's expenditure on developing the land for parking and to pay a separate rate for its maintenance and improvement. The Council contended that even if a trust arose, it had validly excluded the land from community land status under the Local Government Act 1999 (SA) because it was not affected by an instrument of trust preventing alienation.

The court was required to determine whether a public or statutory trust, as formulated by the appellants, had arisen in relation to the land. It also needed to consider whether section 380(b) of the Local Government Act 1934 (SA) provided a basis for the Council to accept property subject to a constraint, and if so, whether that provision applied in this case.

The court reasoned that equity does not recognise a "public or statutory trust" in the manner formulated by the appellants. Furthermore, the court found no basis to extend the application of section 380(b) of the Local Government Act 1934 beyond the acceptance of a gift, conveyance, or assignment of property to a council subject to a constraint. In this instance, the court determined that there had been no such gift, conveyance, or assignment.

Consequently, the appeal was dismissed.