Stern v City of Adelaide

The applicant, Ms Stern, sought permission to appeal a decision of the Magistrates Court of South Australia, which had dismissed her appeal against a finding of guilt for parking her vehicle within one metre of a fire hydrant, contrary to rule 194(1) of the Australian Road Rules. The City of Adelaide was the respondent.

The central legal issues before the Full Court of the Supreme Court of South Australia were whether the Magistrate erred in law by finding that the object in question was a fire hydrant for the purposes of rule 194(1), and whether the Magistrate was entitled to conclude that the vehicle was parked within the prohibited distance of the hydrant. Further, the Court considered whether the Magistrate erred in rejecting the applicant's defence that a stranger had moved her vehicle.

The Court held that the definition of a fire hydrant in rule 194(3) does not necessitate that the hydrant be in working order or in pristine condition to qualify as a fire hydrant under rule 194(1). The tattered state of the object did not, on the evidence, strip it of its character as a fire hydrant. Furthermore, the Court found that the Magistrate was entitled to infer from the evidence that the vehicle was parked within one metre of the hydrant, even without precise measurement. Finally, the Court determined that the applicant's suggestion of a stranger moving her vehicle was entirely speculative and, even if it had discharged an evidentiary onus, the prosecution had excluded this defence beyond reasonable doubt.

The application for permission to appeal was dismissed.