Hunter Douglas Australia Pty v Perma Blinds: 1970

(Australia) The court considered the meaning of the word ‘deemed’ in a statute. Windeyer J said: ‘the verb ‘deem’, or derivatives of it, can be used in statutory definitions to extend the denotation of the defined term to things it would not in ordinary parlance denote. This is often a convenient device for reducing the verbiage of an enactment. But that the word can be used in that way and for that purpose does not mean that whenever it is used it has that effect. After all, to deem means simply to judge, or reach a conclusion about something . . the words ‘deem’ and ‘deemed’ when used in a statute thus simply state the effect or meaning which some matter or thing has – the way in which it is to be adjudged. This need not import artificiality or fiction. It may simply be the statement of an indisputable conclusion, as if for example one were to say that on attaining the age of twenty-one years a man is deemed to be of full age and no longer an infant. Hundreds of examples of this usage of the word appear in the statute books.’

Judges:

Windeyer J

Citations:

(1970) 44 ALJR 257

Jurisdiction:

Australia

Cited by:

CitedOxfordshire County Council v Oxford City Council, Catherine Mary Robinson ChD 22-Jan-2004
Land had been registered in part as a common. The council appealed.
Held: The rights pre-existing the Act had not been lost. The presumption against retrospectively disapplying vested rights applied, and the application had properly been made. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Litigation Practice

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.192099