TT Line Company Pty Ltd v Burrows

TT Line Company Pty Ltd (the applicant) sought a review of a ruling made by a magistrate in Tasmania. The dispute concerned a criminal complaint where the applicant argued that the charge laid against it was duplicitous. The applicant sought to challenge the magistrate's determination that the charge was not duplicitous.

The central legal issue before the Supreme Court of Tasmania was whether the magistrate's ruling, that there was no duplicity in the charge, constituted an "order" within the meaning of the relevant legislation, thereby making it amenable to a motion to review. The applicant contended that such a ruling was a final determination on a significant aspect of the proceedings and thus should be reviewable.

The Court held that the definition of "order" in the relevant legislation was broad enough to encompass a determination or adjudication made by a magistrate during the course of proceedings. The magistrate's ruling on the duplicity of the charge was a definitive adjudication on a substantive legal question that affected the applicant's rights and the conduct of the trial. Therefore, the ruling was an "order" for the purposes of a motion to review. The Court found that the applicant was a person aggrieved by this order and that the motion to review was therefore available.