McNeill v Whitton

This case concerned an appeal to the High Court of Australia by James McNeill against a conviction for interfering with goods subject to the control of the Customs. The prosecution, led by Percy Whitton, Collector of Customs for Victoria, alleged that McNeill, a wharf labourer, had opened and hammered down the lid of a Customs-controlled case with a dog-hook without authority. McNeill contended that he had merely hammered down a slightly open lid to close it while on a stack of cases.

The central legal issue before the High Court was whether the act of hammering down a partially open lid of a case of goods, as found by the magistrate, constituted an "interference" with goods subject to the control of the Customs within the meaning of section 33 of the *Customs Act 1901-1910*. This question arose after the Supreme Court of Victoria had previously held that such an act did amount to an interference.

The High Court, in its judgment delivered by Griffith C.J., found that the act of hammering down a partially open lid, as described by the magistrate, did not, as a matter of law, amount to an interference with goods subject to the control of the Customs under section 33 of the Act. The Court reasoned that the prohibition in section 33 was not absolute in the sense that any unauthorised action would suffice, and that the specific act described did not, in their view, constitute an interference. Consequently, the conviction could not stand.

The appeal was allowed, the conviction was quashed, and the respondent was ordered to pay the costs of the appeal and costs in the Court of Petty Sessions.