Question for commission on airport licence

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32702, 3 September 1971, Page 17

Question for commission on airport licence

The Licensing Control Commission has been asked to determine the capacity in which Mr A. I. R. Jamieson, manager of the Christchurch Airport, applied for a liquor licence for the airport, according to a reserved decis-

ion given by Mr Justice Wilson in the Supreme Court yesterday.

On August 26 Mr Jamieson appealed by way of a case stated to the Supreme Court against a decision of the Licensing Control Commission not to grant him a licence under section 112 D of the Sale of Liquor Act, 1962. The appeal was made on the ground that the commission’s decision was erroneous in law.

The commission declined to grant the licence to Mr Jamieson on the ground that he made his application in his capacity as the chief executive officer of the Airport Authority and that the Airport Authority, under existing legislation, could not become the holder of the licence.

Mr J. G. Leggat appeared for Mr Jamieson and Mr J. O. Upton, of Wellington, for the commission. Mr Leggat submitted that Mr Jamieson had made his application for the licence as an individual, and that as such he was not prevented in law from holding the licence. In his reserved decision his Honour said that because of the lack of finding by thecommission as to whether

Mr Jamieson applied in his own personal capacity or as the employee or nominee of the Airport Authority, and whether, in the latter event, he would possess the necessary power from the authority to carry out the duties under the Sale of Liquor Act without reference to or control by the authority, he was unable to answer the question posed by the case stated, namely, whether the commission’s decision to refuse the application on the ground stated was erroneous in point of law.

"The furthest I can go, on the facts found by the commission, is to hold that, if the applicant would be holding the licence and conducting the business for and on behalf of the authority, that circumstance does not necessarily make him ineligible to apply for and hold an airport licence,” his Honour said.