SUPREME COURT

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28158, 22 December 1956, Page 6

SUPREME COURT

WRIT AGAINST TRANSPORT AUTHORITY REFUSED

A writ of certiorari to quash a decision of the No 9 Transport Licensing Authority in reviewing the New Zealand Express Company’s continuous goods service licence has been refused by Mr Justice Adams in the Supreme Court

The motion for the issue of the writ was heard on July 20. Mr J. B. Weir appeared for the New Zealand Express Company, Ltd. in support of the motion, and Mr P. T. Mahon and Mr A. D. Holland for John Arthur Bretherton and the Minister of Railways.

“I am not satisfied that there has been any failure -of natural justice in procedural matters, and in any event am satisfied that the case is one in which, in the exercise of the discretion vested in the Court, the writ should be refused,” said his Honour in his reserved judgment.

“I have, of course, nothing to say as to the merits of the case presented at the hearing before the Licensing Authority. But it does seem as though, rightly or wrongly, the plaintiff company is deprived by the authority’s decision of some valuable goodwill, which is thereby transferred without compensation to the Railways Department. I think also that there was some justification for the view that the plaintiff did not receive before the hearing a really adequate warning as to the nature of the case it would be called upon to meet.

“For these reasons I am not disposed to make any order as to costs, but the question is reserved.”