Humphries v Proprietors “Surfers Palms North” Group Titles Plan 1955

Humphries (the applicant) sought judicial review of a decision by the respondent, the body corporate of "Surfers Palms North" Group Titles Plan 1955, to refuse to grant a licence to the applicant to keep a dog on his unit. The applicant had been granted permission to keep a dog by the previous body corporate, but this permission was revoked by the respondent. The matter came before the High Court of Australia.

The central legal issue before the High Court was whether the respondent, as a body corporate constituted under the *Group Titles Act 1971* (Qld), had the power to revoke a licence previously granted by its predecessor to keep a dog on a unit, where the licence was not expressed to be for a limited period. The court also considered the nature of the rights and obligations of a body corporate and unit owners under the relevant legislation.

The High Court held that the respondent did not have the power to revoke the licence. Brennan, Deane, Toohey, Gaudron and McHugh JJ reasoned that the previous body corporate had granted a licence which, in the absence of any express limitation of time, was intended to be perpetual. The court found that the respondent, as the successor body corporate, was bound by the actions of its predecessor and could not unilaterally revoke a licence that had been validly granted. The court emphasised that the rights of unit owners, once established, should not be arbitrarily interfered with by subsequent bodies corporate.

The High Court ordered that the respondent's decision to revoke the licence be quashed and that the applicant be permitted to keep his dog on the unit.