Gogos v Christopoulos
[1994] HCATrans 467
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IN THE HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA
Office of the Registry
Adelaide No A27 of 1994 B e t w e e n -
ANDREW GOGOS
Applicant
and
KONSTANTINOS CHRISTOPOULOS
Respondent
Application for special leave
to appeal
MASON CJ TOOHEY J McHUGH J
| Gogos | 26/8/94 |
TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS
AT ADELAIDE ON FRIDAY, 26 AUGUST 1994, AT 11.59 AM
Copyright in the High Court of Australia
| MR S.W. TILMOUTH, QC: | May it please the Court, I appear |
with my learned friend, MR C.J. KOURAKIS, for the
applicant. (instructed by Zacharoyannis Luppino
and Eckermann)
| MR M.F. BLUE: | May it please the Court, I appear with my |
learned friend, MR S.P. O'SULLIVAN, for the
respondent. (instructed by Fisher Jeffries)
| MASON CJ: | Yes, Mr Tilmouth? |
| MR TILMOUTH: | May it please the Court. | In essence our |
application for special leave is based upon the fact of the construction of the majority of the section in this case rendered it practically
useless.
| MASON CJ: | But why should it not be strictly construed? | It |
is a penal provision?
| MR TILMOUTH: | It is only a regulatory offence, if the Court |
pleases. It attracts only a $500 fine. Its main
purpose is to forbid landlords taking unjustly
premiums, or key money, from vulnerable tenants.The policy underlying the section is very
important, if the Court pleases. The section was meant to be an easy and effective remedy and it is
not one of those which requires any significantmens rea, it is purely a regulatory offence which gives a very quick and effective remedy. In fact, if the Court pleases, the fact that it is a
regulatory offence, shows that it was wrong as a
matter of statutory construction to regard its
penal nature as overriding a fair, large and
liberal interpretation which gave the section
effective work to do.
Your Honours, can I take you quickly to the
section. A convenient reference point is in page 23 of the appeal document - - -
MASON CJ: Just before you get to that. Was the individual
from whom the money was taken a tenant?
| MR TILMOUTH: | He was the outgoing tenant, the applicant. |
| MASON CJ: | Then was he a tenant? |
MR TILMOUTH: | Yes, he was at relevant times because the settlement occurred on 31 January. It is the same |
| day on which the money was handed over; the payment | |
| of the extra $30,000 within the total of | |
| money - - - |
TOOHEY J: Sorry, when you say "handed over", you mean
handed over by the purchaser of the business,
| Gogos | 26/8/94 |
Mr Tilmouth, or do you mean handed over by the person whom you describe as tenant?
| MR TILMOUTH: | By the vendor. | But that was the respondent's |
case: effectively, it was handed over by a third
party, the incoming tenant. But if the Court pleases, the money must have been handed over if it
was by the applicant when he was a tenant. If not,
it must have effectively, in my submission, because
it was an integral part of the settlement proceeds,
the $90,000, on the other view, have come from the
incoming tenant, Vratis. So my answer to Your Honour the Chief Justice is the answer must be
yes on either contingency.
The money and the settlement and, in fact, the hand-over and possession all occurred on the same
day, 31 January. If the Court pleases, if I can
take Your Honours to section 57, the reference
point at page 23, there is no reason, in our
submission, why the section should be read down to
simply be applied to a tenant to whom the lease is
presently granted. At page 23, line 8: Subject to this Act -
which is a reference to section 63, amongst
others -
a landlord shall not require or receive from a
tenant or prospective tenant any monetaryconsideration for or in relation to entering
into, extending or renewing a commercial
tenancy agreement other than rent, any amount
payable on account of operating expenses and a
security bond.
In my submission, the policy is plain and it
is important. It is to prevent landlords from
exacting premiums or key moneys from their tenants.
with respect, as to whether the tenant happens to There is no fine legal distinction made in here, be outgoing or incoming or the money is paid over in the hiatus period between the two situations.
On the face of it it is a broad, easily construedsection using plain and simple words which, in my submission, clearly cover the circumstances in this case. As the Court knows, the construction of the
majority - and by the way, two Supreme Court judges
have agreed with us in this case, and of course two
in the majority of the Full Court have disagreed -
the construction given by the majority in the
Full Court, page 38, line 11, was that:
| Gogos | 26/8/94 |
section 57 has no application to payment of a
proposed premium (as here) by an outgoing
tenant -
If the Court pleases, there is simply no
warrant on the plain words of section 57 why it
should be so construed. The evil with which the enactment was intended to stop is the very sort of
case which is before the Court. If the Court
pleases, as Justice Matheson found - he was in the
minority dissenting judgment and we rely on him, if
the Court pleases, very highly - pages 24 and 25 -
perhaps line 27 is a convenient reference - page 24
line 27:
I agree with Mr Kourakis that an
interpretation of section 57 should be
avoided, if possible, which would mean that
the appellant does not commit an offence and
can keep the $30,000 simply because Vratis -
the incoming tenant -
left it to the respondent to do whatever was
necessary, including paying a premium, to get
the lease and right of renewal he wanted.
Further, I agree with Mr Kourakis that it is
precisely in cases where there is an incoming
and outgoing tenant -
as is the case here, in our submission -
that the potential for demanding and receiving
a premium is at its highest. The section does
not contain any words to the effect that the
payment has to relate to the same tenancy
agreement which created the relationship of
landlord and tenant. I draw attention to the condition "for -
or - in relation to. There is a mistyping there, if the Court pleases.
If the Court pleases, that catches exactly our
point.
The other point, if the Court pleases, which
we argue, is that the interpretation by the
majority would simply frustrate and make it easy to
avoid the section by creating the device of
exacting the key money, or the premium, from the
outgoing tenant. Whereas, in my submission, the
legislation clearly comprehended all situations.
Justice Matheson also accepted that at page 27, if
the Court pleases, right at the top:
| Gogos | 26/8/94 |
In my opinion, the mischief at which
Part IV is aimed includes the limitation of the circumstances in which an avaricious landlord can receive a premium from a tenant.
And then at line 8:
I think the appellant's interpretation would
frustrate this policy. With respect to section 57, as long as the landlord distances
himself from the purchaser and obtains it from
his current tenant he will escape the net ofsection 57.
Now, that is our point, if the Court pleases. It
is very, very easy to avoid what is otherwise a
plain section with a plain purpose.
Your Honours, the other reason why the majority held against us was that it said that
section 57 had to be read in conjunction with, and
read down by, section 63. In our submission, the
two stand alone, except in one minor respect.
Section 63, Your Honours, is at page 36 and
page 37, the most convenience reference in thejudgment of Justice Olsson, beginning at line 10,
Your Honours. The subject-matter is plainly the civil remedies rather than criminal, as section 57
is, and it provides for the authorization of the
tenancy tribunal in cases where -
subsection (1) (a) - there is an:
agreement between a landlord and a tenant
(whether or not a commercial tenancy
agreement)(i) upon or in respect of the sale or disposal .....
or -
(ii) upon or in respect of the assignment of
rights under a commercial tenancy
agreement -
and -
(b) there is calculated by reference to -
(i) the consideration -
and on the top of page 37:
(ii) the value of the goodwill -
| Gogos | 26/8/94 |
Now, all that section does, if the Court pleases,
is to invalidate - subsection (2) - an agreement of
that kind if there is not approval of the tribunal.
Now the subject-matter of section 63 is civil
and not criminal but, moreover, if the Court
pleases, it is designed to allow for that very
limited class of case where there is a situation
arising where, on sale, disposal or assignment, it
because, for example, the business concerns a place
where there is a great deal of geographic goodwill.is necessary for a landlord to obtain an approval landlord has a legitimate interest in seeking some
money because of proper circumstances owing to the fact of the situation and therefore the ownership of the property and the landlord, rather than the goodwill built up by the tenant, who operates the
business. So section 63 stands quite apart and independently and should have no governing effect in reading down section 57 which has a completely different purpose and operation altogether. Your Honours, could I add this as well - and,
if the Court pleases, Justice Matheson also
accepted that at pages 26 to 27, and I have read
most of that, if the Court pleases. Now, could I just deal with one matter raised by my learned
friends in their written response. Inparagraphs 27 and 28 it is submitted for the respondent, rightly, that "The applicant has
instituted proceedings" - this is page 6 of their
outline, Your Honours - under section 63, the civil
proceeding. Now, that is true; it was issued on the same day as the criminal proceedings. But it
was issued, if the Court pleases, because of theuncertainty about which remedy would apply here.
The fact of the matter is section 63 is probably a
very doubtful remedy for the applicant because it
is limited to the class of case that I have
mentioned and also because the premium has to be calculated according to a formula, that is to say,
by reference to either the consideration or the
value of the goodwill.
| TOOHEY J: | But in the sense, Mr Tilmouth, section 57 does |
not give a remedy to your client, does it?
| MR TILMOUTH: | Not on the construction that is given by |
the
TOOHEY J: Well, no, on any construction.
| MR TILMOUTH: | That may be so, but there should be - - - |
TOOHEY J: It may result in a conviction and a penalty, but
is there anything in the Act which gives rise to
| Gogos | 26/8/94 |
some obligation to return money paid in
contravention of the section?
| MR TILMOUTH: | Not directly, but it would give rise, first of |
all, to application for criminal injuries
compensation under the separate Criminal Injuries
Compensation Act and, necessarily, because it is
proved illegal, it would probably found a common
law action based on an illegal contract from which
the money could be recovered. So, although the Act provides no remedy, there are two potential
consequential remedies under those two mechanisms.
By the way, if the Court pleases, it is a reason to
construe section 57 widely to give a remedy,
because, without the illegality, there is a grave
difficulty about whether there can be an
efficacious remedy, either at common law or under
the Criminal Injuries Compensation Act. That Act
requires proof of an offence beyond reasonable
doubt.
But the other thing, if the Court pleases, is
that the current construction of section 63, in the
case of Willcham v Iglio, which is referred to by
the Court, and especially Justice Olsson, is a
construction which, in fact, says if the payment is
a premium or key money, section 63 does not apply
to it. And could I hand up a copy of that case, if the Court pleases. It is a decision of the
District Court but, if the Court pleases,
Your Honours would have seen that it was applied by
Justice Olsson at page 38. Could I take Your Honours to page 200 of this judgment - it is
(1989) 153 LSJS 200 - where Judge Bowering is
considering section 63. At point 4 in the paragraph which commences, he says:
Secondly, even leaving aside the question of whether the provisions of Section 63 apply at
all to the commercial tenancy agreement in
question, I have the gravest of doubts as to
whether, on the facts as agreed, the sum of $37,500 can be reasonably regarded as having been calculated by reference to either of the
modes of calculation sought to be precluded by
the provisions of subsection 63(1), namely,
the consideration, or any part of the
consideration, received by the applicant as a
consequence of the sale of its business or,
alternatively, the value of the goodwill or
any other asset of that business.
Now, what that passage is saying, if the Court
pleases: to attract section 63 you have got to
show that the premium related to the goodwill or
the consideration, ie, related to the formula. In
this case, as in many cases, the premium is simply
| Gogos | 26/8/94 |
an arbitrary amount which would therefore not
attract section 63. In the civil proceedings
instituted by the applicant here under section 63,
the respondents have expressly pleaded that
section 63 does not apply. In other words, it would appear that they will argue, when it comes to
it, on Willcham's case, that we have no remedy.
Could I take Your Honours further, however, to the bottom of that passage on page 200, the last
sentence, which is extremely important, in our submission. It is five lines from the bottom:
In my opinion, the only conclusion which can
be reasonably drawn from the Agreed Statement
of Facts is that this money was paid to the
respondents, not in respect of the sale or
disposal of the applicant's business -
but - the word is not there but it should read
"but" in context -
rather in consideration of their agreeing to
the new lease arrangements.
In other words, if Willcham is right, where you
consciously have the extraction of a premium which
is not related to the formula in section 63, by
definition, section 63 does not apply. In our
submission, Willcham, of course, has been excepted,
at least by the majority, through Justice Olsson's
judgment, at page 38. Your Honours will see there
between lines 15 and 20 where His Honour, with whom
Justice Prior agreed in this respect - line 17:
This was the conceptual conclusion
arrived at District Court Judge Bowering in
Willcham .... . As he there pointed out,
subsection (1) of section 57 is, in terms,
pre-occupied with the entry into, or renewal
which are the existing or a proposed direct or extension of, a tenancy - the parties to relationship of landlord and tenant.
So, in other words, if the Court pleases, on the current construction of section 63 there is no
remedy; on the construction favoured by two of four
judges of the Supreme Court, there is no remedy
either. In this case, the facts are quite plain:
that the landlord was seeking from a vulnerable
tenant, who needed to sell the business, and withit secure for the incoming tenant the lease, a
premium or key money, and there is no reason, in my
submission, why a plain reading of the words at
section 57 should not apply. The current construction is technical. It is a very fine -
| Gogos | 26/8/94 |
section 57 should not apply. The current construction is technical. It is a very fine - - -
| MASON CJ: | You are corning back to what you have already put |
to us.
| MR TILMOUTH: | That is true, if the Court pleases. | In my |
submission, if the Court pleases, the decision of
the majority is plainly wrong and it makes the
section far too easy to avoid and - - -
MASON CJ: Well, you have said all that.
| MR TILMOUTH: | That is true, if the Court pleases. | We |
would seek a grant of special leave for those
reasons. May it please Your Honours.
| MASON CJ: | Yes, Mr Blue. |
| MR BLUE: | May the Court please, it is our submission that |
the decision of the majority is plainly correct or,
at least, is not attended by sufficient doubt. correct in saying that division 3 had to be looked at as a whole and that in looking at it, section 57
was intended by Parliament to apply to, in effect,
up-front payments, that is, payments by a
prospective tenant for entering into a lease in the
first place or, alternatively, payments by an
existing tenant for extending or renewing the
lease. On the other hand, section 63 is dealing with payments made at the end of a lease, that is,
when the tenant is getting out and is selling.
Section 63 deals with both methods by which a
tenant might get out: either the tenant might
assign the existing lease to the purchaser or,
alternatively, there might be an agreement with the
landlord to cancel the tenant's lease and to granta new lease to the purchaser of the business.
In our submission, in no circumstances, on my
learned friend's argument, could section 57 apply
to an assignment. That is, if this transaction had
been structured as a payment by the applicant in
consideration for an assignment of the lease to the
purchaser of the business, then the words of
section 57 simply are not apposite to catch thatsituation at all because section 57 requires a
payment for entering into - there would not be an
entering into; there would be an assignment - or
extending an agreement. Again, there would not be an extension of the agreement; rather, there would
be an assignment. So, in our submission, it is plain that in no circumstances could section 57
catch a payment under an assignment. We say that that fortifies the conclusion that section 3 is the
section that is intended to deal with payments at
| Gogos | 26/8/94 |
the end of the lease, that is, payments that might
be made in relation to an assignment; section 57 is
not. Therefore, Parliament has - - -
| TOOHEY J: | Can I just take you back to that statement, |
Mr Blue. Why exactly would it not catch an assignment?
| MR BLUE: | Because, Your Honour, there are three things that |
section 57 catches: the first is, entering into a
commercial tenancy agreement. Now, if there is an
assignment, there is no entry into of an agreement.
There was a lease - - -
| TOOHEY J: | Why not? |
| MR BLUE: | Because there was a lease in 1985, in this |
case -
| TOOHEY J: | Yes, I understand that. |
| MR BLUE: | - - - but, upon an assignment, there is merely an |
assignment by one party to the contract of their
interest under that contract. There is not a fresh
contract entered into between the purchaser, that
is, the assignee, and the landlord; it is merely a
transfer of some of the rights under the existing
contract but not the creation of a new lease.
TOOHEY J: | Would that be so whether or not the original lessor was a party to the assignment? |
| MR BLUE: | In our respectful submission, yes. Whether or not |
the landlord was consenting to the assignment would
make no difference. At law, the nature of the
transaction is that there is still an existing
contract, that is, the original lease, and that
there is merely an assignment to the rights under
that contract, not the creation of a whole new setof rights under a new contract. Similarly, in our
submission, it would not be extending the
commercial tenancy agreement because, again, there
is no extension of the term of the lease; rather,
it is a change in the identity of the other party
to that lease by virtue of the assignment.
So, in our submission, if that is correct,
then that fortifies the conclusion that section 57
is not intended to deal with payments at the end of
a lease in relation to a sale by means of an
assignment but, rather, what the Full Court
majority said was, up-front payments. In our
submission, also there are large differences in
Parliament's approach to those up-front payments
dealt with in section 57 and the payments made at
the end of the lease, as far as the outgoing
tenant is concerned, dealt with in section 63.
| Gogos | 10 | 26/8/94 |
Section 57 makes it a criminal offence for the
landlord to receive up-front payments and no where
in the Act, as my learned friend conceded, has
Parliament here dealt with the civil liability
position as between the parties in relation to
those payments. On the contrary, in section 63, Parliament is directing its attention to civil
liability only; not at all to criminal liability.
There is no offence made here. In our submission, the approval power that is given to the tribunal in section 63(2) is purely in the context of operating
as an exception to what that section would
otherwise do. The wording is: A provision in an agreement that purports to create a liability to which this section applies is void and of no effect unless
approved by the Tribunal.
So, in our submission, that exception, that is the
tribunal's approval, only will have effect as
undoing what otherwise section 63 would do, and
that is make it void, as a matter of civil rights
between the parties.
TOOHEY J: It becomes a pretty artificial loan, does it not?
Using the language of the section, if the landlord
says to the prospective tenant, "I will not enter
into a tenancy agreement with you unless you pay me
X dollars by way of key money''. That is caught by the section. The landlord says to the outgoing tenant, "I will make it difficult for you to sell
your business because I won't give the purchaser
the sort of lease that the purchaser is likely to
want, unless I get X thousand dollars'', and it is
not caught by the section.
That may be the result dictated by the
language of the section, but if it is, it is a
fairly artificial distinction.
| MR BLUE: It is our submission, Your Honour, that that is |
the result that is dictated. That Parliament has
looked at this in two different ways: one is
payments at the beginning and one is payments at
the end. In section 63 is has chosen to deal with
it in that way and only catch certain
circumstances, whereas, payments up front, it is
decided that - and it is our submission,
Your Honour, that no approval by the tribunal could
exempt a defendant from a prosecution under
section 57.
The tribunal is not given power to, in
section 57, in effect, authorize the payment.
There is an absolute prohibition in section 57,
regardless of the circumstances. Whereas,
| Gogos | 11 | 26/8/94 |
section 63: Parliament has given power. So, Your Honour, there will be equal anomalies, as
Justice Olsson said in the Full Court, which would
arise.
If it be accepted that that might be regarded
as an artificial distinction, there would be equal
anomalies that the tribunal could not make any
authorization for payments that are made by the
prospective tenant, but it could make an
authorization if the payment was made by the
outgoing tenant in respect of liability under
section 63 and, yet, nevertheless, there would
still be a criminal offence committed. Equally, if
the Court accepts that assignments are not caught
by section 57 but new agreements are, there will be
an anomaly because, if the transaction were done by
way of assignment, then section 57 will not apply.
If the transaction is done by way of creating a new
lease, then section 57 would apply.
| TOOHEY J: | Under the South Australian legislation, can a |
lessor unreasonably withhold consent to an
assignment?
| MR BLUE: | No, Your Honour. That is dealt with by |
section 64, which provides that a lessor cannot
unreasonably withhold consent.
| TOOHEY J: | Yes, thank you. |
| MR BLUE: | So, in our submission, the majority of the |
Full Court, in its reasoning and in discerning the
apparent purpose of section 57 and the apparent
purpose of section 63, was correct.
Secondly, we would submit that there is
nothing in the materials placed before the Court by
the applicant which shows that this is a matter of
sufficient public importance to warrant the
attention of the Court. There is a reference to other States' legislation but, in our submission, this question. For example, Victoria, in its
other States take an entirely different approach to court to this, but Victoria rolls up payments both at the beginning of the lease and the end of the lease.
| MASON CJ: | We need not trouble you any further, Mr Blue. |
| MR BLUE: | Thank you, Your Honour. |
| MASON CJ: | Now, Mr Tilmouth, there is one point I want to |
put to you, apart from any matter that you want to
reply to that has been put to us by Mr Blue, and
that is this: why should we grant special leave to
| Gogos | 12 | 26/8/94 |
appeal in this case when we are concerned with the
construction of an ambiguous provision in a State
statute which has a penal operation and the
question of construction raises no point of general
principle?
| MR TILMOUTH: | Because it is a question of general importance |
for this State of course.
| MASON CJ: | Yes, but we have held before that we will not |
grant special leave to appeal in relation to
provisions in State statutes which may have some
importance in the State.
| MR TILMOUTH: | Yes, that is understood. | In our submission, |
with respect, the section is not ambiguous at
all.
| MASON CJ: | Everyone seems to have thought it is ambiguous up |
to date, having regard to the division of opinion
with respect to it.
| MR TILMOUTH: | Only because they brought in the extraneous |
question of section 63, and also because, if the
Court pleases, in our submission, the Act would be rendered practically useless, as I said earlier, onan important matter of policy, and could I also
plead section 35B of the Judiciary Act in the
individual interests of the applicants in this
case?
TOOHEY J: That is a difficult argument to run here, is
it not, because the applicants have invoked a penal
provision. They may have done so for a further purpose, but when you speak of the administration
of justice in the particular case, the section
itself is concerned with a prosecution against the
individual who, as it happens, is the respondent,
not the applicant.
MR TILMOUTH:
As the law currently stands, may it please
Your Honours, we would have no other remedy because
on the current construction, as I have
demonstrated: 63, we are out of court because the premium exacted here was not referable to any of
the criteria there, and if we are out of court on
section 57, there is no other avenue whatsoever.We are left without a remedy with respect to
something which is plainly wrong, the premium
question of a construction of a local statute,
exacted here, a considerable amount of money and,
in our submission, they are very powerful factors.
an antagonism, if the Court pleases, between the
principle that where you have got a regulatory
offence like here, you have such an obvious policy
which is sought to be achieved and where,
| Gogos | 13 | 26/8/94 |
accordingly, there should be a liberal
interpretation as against reading it down, so to
speak, because it is a penal provision, and there
is, in our submission, the tension between those
two principles which, in itself, could be a proper
basis for the grant of special leave.
But to leave the applicant out of court here
would, with respect, leave him without a remedy
from what is a probable wrong which has been
committed and, with respect, would leave many
vulnerable tenants susceptible to the demands of
landlords.
| TOOHEY J: | One thing we do not know, for instance, when you |
speak about the wrong done, to what extent the
purchase price for the business had built into it,
the consideration that the landlord was demanding.
I am not inviting you to comment on that but it
makes it difficult when you are running an argument
about rights and wrongs of the respective parties.
MR TILMOUTH: Either way, if the Court pleases, there has
been a premium of $30,000 because, if the proper
consideration for the business was $90,000, my
client had to pay up $30,000 of that money. The business he has built up over five years; he has to
lose a third of that value for the five years of
his hard working life as a small business operator.
On the other hand, of course, the only other
alternative is, if the proper consideration were
$60,000, there has been a mark-up. So, either way it had the same effect; an effect which is
clearly - - -
| TOOHEY J: | Not quite. | On one view your client is out of |
pocket $30,000; on the other he is not out of
pocket $30,000, having regard to the fair value ofthe business.
| MR TILMOUTH: | On the other view, the incoming tenant is out |
of pocket.
TOOHEY J: That may be true, but the incoming tenant ·is not
a party to this litigation.
| MR TILMOUTH: | If the Court pleases, to get back to |
Your Honour the Chief Justice, those comments are
acknowledge, of course, but it has far-reaching
implications with respect the small businesscommunity which, in our submission, should properly
attract the grant of special leave. Could I add,
for what it is worth, in our submission, the case
should not take very long to argue, if that is of
any comfort to the Court.
| Gogos | 14 | 26/8/94 |
Could I reply, as invited, if the Court
pleases, on two small matters? In my submission, the question of assignment is clearly encompassed
by the words "entering into" in the section because
the person to whom the lease is assigned, the
incoming tenant is clearly entering into, on that
side of the transaction, a lease agreement. The fact that it is an assignment or does not alter
that character of that transaction.
Secondly, I misled the Court. I said that
the only remedy available, if a conviction was
secured, for compensation was the Criminal Injuries
Compensation Act. That is wrong, I am sorry,
because that only relating to personal injuries.
The mechanism is the Sentencing Act which gives the
remedy. That Act is in our written outline. I referred to the wrong Act, if the Court pleases.
But we would press strongly for a grant of special
leave.
| MASON CJ: | Thank you, Mr Tilmouth. |
The proposed appeal relates to the
interpretation of an ambiguous penal provision in a
State statute involving no question of general
principle. The case is not of sufficient public importance to warrant the grant of special leave to
appeal. The application is therefore refused.
| MR BLUE: | May the Court please, I seek an order for costs. |
| MASON CJ: | You do not oppose costs? |
| MR TILMOUTH: | No, I cannot. |
| MASON CJ: | The application is refused with costs. |
| AT 12.35 PM THE MATTER WAS ADJOURNED SINE DIE |
| Gogos | 15 | 26/8/94 |
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