MAPA Pearls v Haliotis Fisheries
Court of Appeal
Kyrou, McLeish and Niall JJA
11/05/2023
[2023] VSCA 108
Real property — Crown land — Lease — Invalid lease — Grant in contravention of Land Act 1958 — Failure to observe procedural fairness to affected persons — Lease registered under Transfer of Land Act — Indefeasibility of title — Whether conduct of registered proprietor unconscientious — Whether affected persons had in personam cause of action against registered proprietor — Land Act 1958 (Vic), ss 12, 134, 137 — Transfer of Land Act 1958 (Vic), ss 8, 26, 40, 41, 42
Constitutional law — Commonwealth — Victoria — State boundaries — Offshore Constitutional Settlement — Land vested in State outside boundary of State — Whether sea-bed vested in State within purview of Land Act 1958 — Land Act 1958 (Vic), s 4 — Coastal Waters (State Powers) Act 1980 (Cth), s 5 — Coastal Waters (State Title) Act 1980 (Cth), s 4(1)
Read the judgment here.