Haydon v Chivell

[1999] HCA 39

HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA

GAUDRON J

MARK RAY HAYDON  APPLICANT

AND

WAYNE CHIVELL  RESPONDENT

Haydon v Chivell [1999] HCA 39
Date of Order:  12 August 1999
Date of Publication of Reasons:  20 August 1999
A20/1999

ORDER

Application for interim injunctions pending an application for special leave to appeal from the orders of the Full Court of the Supreme Court of South Australia dated 10 August 1999 dismissed.

On appeal from the Supreme Court of South Australia

Representation:

M E Shaw QC with C S L Abbott for the applicant (instructed by Lempriere Abbott McLeod)

M D Walter, Crown Solicitor for the State of South Australia for the respondent and intervening on behalf of the Attorney-General for the State of South Australia (instructed by the Crown Solicitor's Office for the State of South Australia)

P J L Rofe QC, Director of Public Prosecutions (South Australia) intervening (instructed by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (South Australia))

D F Stratford intervening on behalf of certain family members of the deceased (instructed by Rowell Forrest)

Notice:  This copy of the Court’s Reasons for Judgment is subject to formal revision prior to publication in the Commonwealth Law Reports.

1. GAUDRON J.   On 12 August 1999, in Adelaide, I dismissed an application by Mark Ray Haydon ("the applicant") seeking interim injunctions pending the hearing and determination of an application for special leave to appeal from a decision and orders of the Full Court of the Supreme Court of South Australia.  The following are my reasons.

2. The applicant is seeking special leave to appeal from a decision of the Full Court dismissing an appeal from a decision of Lander J.  His Honour dismissed an application for orders which, in general terms, would have prevented the burial or cremation of certain deceased persons.  The applicant has been charged with their murder.  In this Court, as before Lander J and the Full Court, the applicant asserted a right to have independent post-mortem examinations of the bodies conducted on his behalf.

3. The interim orders which the applicant sought in this Court were:

   1.  An order directing the respondent, who is the State Coroner for South Australia ("the Coroner"), to retain possession, custody and control of the body of Ray Allan Peter Davies;

   2.  An order restraining Blackwell Funeral Directors from disposing of the body of Frederick Robert Brooks; and

   3.  An order restraining Northwest Funerals from disposing of the body of Suzanne Phyllis Allen.

   It should be noted that neither Blackwell Funeral Directors nor Northwest Funerals was joined as a party to the proceedings in this Court.  However, that is a matter which can be put to one side.  The next of kin of the deceased persons intervened in the proceedings and, if the applicant had otherwise been entitled to the relief claimed, appropriate orders could have been directed to them.

4. The application had its genesis in the finding of a number of bodies in suspicious circumstances. The Coroner took possession or control of those bodies and directed…