Hanging fees case may go to Privy Council

Press, 28 April 1981, Page 9

Hanging fees case may go to Privy Council

The test case of the claim by Canterbury Bye Products, Ltd, for a hanging fee for stock killed outside its area but sold within it, and which the company never handled, may end up before the Privy Council.

An application for leave to appeal against the decisions of the Court of Appeal of New. Zealand in December, last year, upholding the company’s claim for the hanging fee will come before the Privy Council in London on May 20.

The case first came before Mr Justice Cook in the Christchurch Supreme Court on February 18, 1980. Canterbury Bye-Products. Ltd. claimed ‘the hanging fee

from William David Wiseman, a meat wholesaler, who contested the claim. Mr J. G. Fogarty appeared for Canterbury Bye-Products, now known as C.B.P. Industries, Ltd, and Mr A. A. P. Willy appeared for Mr Wiseman. In a reserved decision given on April 22, 1980, Mr Justice Cook dismissed the claim by Canterbury ByeProducts and awarded costs of $750 to Mr Wiseman. His Honour held that rules in the deed of delegation, in which the Christchurch City Council handed its powers and obligations under the Meat Act to Canterbury ByeProducts, had lapsed and therefore the company had

no power to make rules to claim the hanging fee. Claims against a number of persons and organisations associated with the meat industry are dependent upon the eventual outcome of the case.

However, all hanging fees levied by local bodies operating municipal abattoirs or delegating their powers to companys operating them, under Section 22 of the Meat Act, 1964, will cease to apply automatically on June 30, 1981, when the meat industry will be delicensed.

Canterbury Bye-Products appealed against Mr Justice Cook's decision to the Court of Appeal and the case was heard before Messrs Justices Richmond. McMullin and Quilliam on October 24, 1980. In a unanimous decision given on December 19, 1980, their Honours upheld the appeal and Mr Justice Cook's decision was vacated.

Mr Justice Cook in his decision said that it was not denied by Mr Wiseman that he had killed stock outside the company’s district but sold the meat within it. He admitted that he had not paid the hanging fees but said that he was not, and never had been, under an obligation to pay them to the company. It was admitted by Mr Wiseman that he had not

made returns of the stock which he killed, but maintained that the company had no authority to demand them.

Deeds of delegation dated September 29, 1950. October 16, 1961, and May 23, 1973, were admitted. Mr Justice Cook said that the question at issue was whether the rules made by the company in its capacity as the authority delegated to it by the Christchurch City Council, in respect of the abattoir in Canterbury under Section 22 of the Meat Act, continued in force as was submitted by the company, or whether they lapsed on October 1, 1960, or October 1, 1970, and had not been remade.

It was in effect whether the company was able to enforce the 1950 rules against Mr Wiseman. Mr Justice Cook held that it could not. Mr Justice Richmond in his decision said that in his opinion there was no principle of law, which would justify the Court in holding that the 1950 rules, as amended up to September 30, 1970, did not apply during the period of delegation created by the deed of May 23, 1973. Canterbury Bye-Products was granted costs of $750 in both courts and other expenses.