Music Talking Pty Ltd as trustee for the Orlando Farese Family Trust v Villis Group Services

Music Talking Pty Ltd, as trustee for the Orlando Farese Family Trust (the appellant), appealed to the Full Court of the Supreme Court of South Australia against a decision of a judge of the Licensing Court. The dispute concerned noise and patron behaviour emanating from the appellant's licensed premises, "Heaven," which led to complaints under section 106 of the Liquor Licensing Act 1997 (SA). The Licensing Court judge had reduced the trading hours of the premises in response to these complaints.

The primary legal issues before the Full Court were whether the noise and behaviour from the licensed premises were unduly offensive, annoying, disturbing, or inconvenient to complainants, and whether the matter should be remitted to the Licensing Court to consider separate trading hours for the ground floor of the premises. The appellant argued that the judge had not considered the possibility of differentiating trading hours between different areas of the venue, particularly the ground floor, which was not the source of the noise complaints.

The Full Court found that the Licensing Court judge had correctly applied the law to the facts concerning the noise emanating from the upper level of the premises, noting that a court inspection revealed how noise from that level would be amplified at a nearby residence. However, the judge had not considered the issue of separate trading hours for the ground floor. The Court concluded that while the judge's assessment of the impact of noise from the upper level was correct, the order reducing trading hours for the entire premises was potentially harsh. Therefore, the Court remitted the matter to the Licensing Court judge to consider whether to impose different trading hours for the ground floor, finding no evidence to justify varying the original trading hours for that level, while acknowledging that any future variation for the upper level would depend on evidence of noise reduction measures.