Summary heading

Series notes for A10048

Function and purpose

This series documents cases known as Court Book cases that were heard before a single Justice[i] of the High Court of Australia.  Court Book cases were so called because they were entered in a High Court register known as the Court Book.

Court Book cases were usually initiated by appeals or applications to the High Court.  They were predominately concerned with seeking revision or reversal of the findings of Commonwealth officials.  For example, appeals by individuals or companies against rulings of the Taxation Board of Review or the Commissioner of Taxation, and appeals against rulings of the Commissioner of Patents and Trade Marks.  They also included applications seeking particular provisions under Federal legislation.  For example, applications for extensions of Federal patents.

The cases in this series were registered in the Court Book at the Queensland Registry of the High Court from 1918 until 1958.  Earlier Court Book cases can be found in series CRS A10044 and post 1958 Court Book cases can be found in series CRS A10040. Please see System of arrangement and control for further discussion of these series.

Single Justice cases
A single Justice hears all Court Book cases but he or she can refer any case or question to the Full Court (a Full Court consists of more than 1 Justice and usually 3-5).  This enabled a single Justice to ensure that the Full Court hears legally significant or complex matters and that the Full Court hears all Constitutional matters[ii].

Single Justice cases were traditionally described as being 'heard in chambers' and section 16 of the Judiciary Act discusses jurisdiction in chambers.  However, this did not mean that they were confidential matters.  Generally, they were open to the public and the records of these cases are treated the same as for open court hearings[iii].

The Federal Court of Australia was established in 1977.  Since then, jurisdiction for most types of single Justice matters registered in the Court Book had passed to the Federal Court's Administrative Law Division and were no longer heard by the High Court.

Contents

Types of initiating documents found in this series

·       The initial document in appeals from the Commissioner of Taxation was often entitled 'Transmission of Objection'.  This document noted that the appellant had made objections to their income tax assessment by the Commissioner of Taxation and had requested that these objections be treated as an appeal to be forwarded to the High Court of Australia.  Alternatively, the first document in taxation appeal cases could be entitled 'Notice of Appeal'.  The Notice of Appeal identified the grounds for an appeal from a decision of either the Commissioner of Taxation or the Taxation Board of Review.

·       The initial document in extension of patents cases was either a notice of motion, stating that the case would be heard on a particular date or an originating summons, calling upon all parties to the case to attend on a particular date.

·       The initial document in appeals from the Commissioner of Patents was either a notice of motion or a notice of appeal

·       The initial document in applications under the Life Insurance Act was usually a notice of motion.

Other documents on the case file could include the following:

• Affidavits: a written statement in place of verbal evidence.  The author is called the deponent and has to sign the statement and swear to the truth of its contents
• Exhibits: A document, photograph or other object shown in court and referred to and identified in written evidence
• Judgement and Orders: The decision on a proceeding was stated in the judgement or order of the court.  It was based on the reasons for judgement of a majority of Justices.  Where there was a tied vote, an appeal case was dismissed.  In Cause cases, the opinion of the Chief Justice or most senior Justice prevails.
• Previous court material: Documents from the court or courts from which the appeal was brought.  These documents usually included the judgement and reasons for judgement and often the transcript of proceedings as well as any other documents thought relevant
• Reasons for judgement: The reasoning behind the Justices' position on the case.  This could be a joint statement or individual statements by each Judge, including dissenting judgements.
• Appeal Books
  Documents relevant to an appeal case that have been bound into a volume or volumes.  Procedures and requirements for appeal books are stated in the High Court Rules. 

·           Transcript Record of Proceedings
On the case file, this usually means a compilation of the most relevant case documents, including in the case of Appeals, the judgements and other relevant documents from previous court cases.  This is distinct from the better-known meaning of transcript as simply the daily record of the oral proceedings in the court.  While some case files will contain both selective record transcripts and daily oral transcripts, please note that the High Court had a separate record keeping system for the latter.  As at 19 January 2006, these are still held by the High Court, and are further discussed in the Relationships with other Records

Please note that many cases will only consist of two or three documents, particularly if the case was withdrawn, discontinued or quickly resolved.

Related legislation

CONSTITUTION OF AUSTRALIA 1901

• Chapter 3 The Judicature

JUDICIARY ACT 1903

• Section 15 Exercise of jurisdiction

• Section 16 Jurisdiction of a single Justice
• Section 18 Reference to a Full Court

Using the series

• Items on database
  All case files for this series held by the National Archives of Australia have been entered on RecordSearch, the Archives online database.
• Keywords
  i) Names of individuals and companies: Case files entered on RecordSearch can be retrieved by keyword searches on individual and company names involved in the case.  Item titles on RecordSearch list the plaintiff(s) first and the defendant(s) appear after the word 'versus'.  For example, Cobb and Co Limited versus The Commissioner of Taxation.  The item titles are based on what the High Court called the short title; the title that appeared on the file cover.  Official court documents within the file have the full or long title and these often include extra names associated with the case.  These names have been added to the item titles on RecordSearch.  Where there is a large list of names, not all have been shown in the item title; at the end of the title the phrase 'and others' has been inserted and the rest of the names have been added to the item note.  Keyword searches on these names will retrieve the record, though the name occurs only in the item note.
  ii) Types of cases: Many file titles also include reference to the type of case.  For example, in this series, keyword searches on one of the following terms: taxation, patent, trademarks, trading enemy, arbitration will all retrieve records
• Titles qualified by 'file cover only'
  In some instances, the Archives holds a file cover only (the contents having been removed, most often to be incorporated with records of a later hearing) and this has been noted after the item title entered in RecordSearch.  If the file cover indicates where the papers have been sent, this will usually be included in the title field.  Otherwise, the High Court Principal Registry may be able to identify the file location via the registers.

Access conditions

Under Section 19 of the Archives Act, the access provisions of the Archives Act do not cover court records unless Regulations have been made.  However, since 1996, the Archives had an agreement with the High Court that enables the Archives to give access to some records of the High Court, in accordance with Court Rules.  This agreement applies to records in Archives custody only.  The records in this series were presented in open court and consequently, the subject matter has always been in the public domain.  (Open court included hearings in chambers before a single Justice).  Therefore, the 30-year rule, which applies to the generality of Commonwealth records, has not been applied under the terms of this agreement.  Nevertheless, each file is examined before public release to ensure that no material is on the file that was not presented in open court and to identify any suppression orders that require material on the file to remain confidential.

Physical characteristics

Each case file in the series usually had an original paper file cover, coloured light blue or grey, with 'In the High Court of Australia' or similar printed at the top.  Underneath this, appeared the record number and the short title (usually Name versus Name, for example, Jones v Smith).  Below this was a printed table of contents, with one column titled 'Nature of document'.  The other column provided a printed number for each document, in the order that they were filed.  This number was also written on the document.  Documents within the file displayed the full or long title on their cover page.  This title listed the names of all parties involved in the case.

Early case files in this series are in poor condition and many of the papers are brittle.  Also, many of the files in this series are still folded lengthwise in two and tied with tape, which is the manner they were maintained while active cases, presumably to aid portability.  This is not an optimal state for long-term preservation and each item requires professional attention.  Therefore, when a researcher at the National Archives of Australia requests a file, it will usually need to go to the Preservation section first for treatment and to unfold the file.

The case files can include plans, photographs and other illustrative material used as exhibits in the case.

System of arrangement and control

• High Court records administration
  This is one of many High Court case file series held by the National Archives of Australia.  Multiple series were necessary due to the administrative structure of the High Court and the different types of cases heard by the High Court.  Until 1973 (in the case of NSW) and for other registries until 1974, the usual practice was to maintain 3 separate registers or 'Books': a Full Court Book, a single Justice Court Book and a single Justice Cause Book.  Registry staff would enter a case in the appropriate register and the case files entered in that register would form a separate record keeping sequence. 
  
  Queensland variation
  The Queensland registry had separate Books (registers) between 1918-1945 with separate record keeping systems.  Between 1904-1917 and 1946-1973 the registry still had separate registers for Full Court and Court Book cases but they had a common numbering system.  This meant that number gaps would appear in both registers because the next sequential number might be entered in the other register.  The Archives registered the1904-1917 records as one series (CRS A10044 : Full Court and Court Book cases) and this ensured a sequential number system for the series.  The Archives then registered 2 separate series for records from 1918 when the Queensland registry converted to separate numbering systems (CRS A10040 and A10048).  When the registry returned to a common numbering system in 1946, the Archives maintained both series and accepted the fact that there would be gaps in the numbering sequence for both series.  The High Court project of 2004-2005 found that the principal registry had Court Book case records housed together up until 1958 and these were duly registered in series A10048.  After this date, the Court records were housed with the Full Court records, presumably because of the common numbering system.  These records were all registered in series A10040.

Control symbols
1) Record number format
The record keeping system of the High Court Registry controlled case files by means of an annual single number system, with the year as the second component (for eg 22/1954).  However, due to limited computer functionality at the time the data entry of this series was first begun, all the items of this series are shown in the Archives online database with the year as the first component (1954/22).

2) Unique identification of each file
As each registry created case files for each type of case (Cause, Court and Full Court), and all of these were controlled by an identical annual single number system, it was necessary also to specify the registry and type of case to provide a unique control for each case file.  This was particularly important, as there was frequent movement of files between High Court registries.  The registry and case type information was hand-written at the top of the file cover.  This information was not included in the RecordSearch control symbols.  However, the series registration contains this information and the series number is always included as an essential part of Archives record identification and record citation.

Case files with multiple physical units
In some instances, the case file consists of a number of physically discrete parts.  In these cases, a suffix has been added to the parent control symbol as required to create a uniquely identifying control symbol for each part.

Relationships with other records

• Control records
  The control records for this series are the Court Book registers that are still held by the Principal Registry of the High Court of Australia (CRS A10045).  They also hold nominal indexes.  Further research into the nominal indexes is required before the Archives can register them.
• Transcripts
  As mentioned in Contents sub-section above, most oral transcripts are still held by the High Court Principal Registry.  They are apparently fairly complete from 1952 and stored in date order.  Case files in this series may include copies of transcripts but another copy should be held in the relevant transcript series (CRS A13188)
• Series links
  These can be accessed from the series registration page.  They display the relationship of other registered series with this series.

Custodial history

• Centralisation of High Court archives in Canberra
  Prior to 1980, each State Registry retained its own files, including the case files and registers.  When the Principal Registry moved to Canberra in 1980, the archives of the NSW and Victorian Registries were also moved there.  The archives of other State Registries were moved in 1981.

Series history

• High Court Project
  As part of the High Court of Australia Centenary in 2003, the High Court provided funding for a project to transfer to the National Archives of Australia all case files dated 1931-1980. The project commenced in July 2004 and was completed in June 2005.  The project rehoused the records in acid free folders and containers to enhance the long-term preservation of the files.  The project also entered all case files as items in the National Archives' online database, RecordSearch.  Case files dated 1903-1930 have already been rehoused and entered on RecordSearch by a previous project.

Sources

Australian Government, Attorney General's Department, SCALEplus, Law Resource, Commonwealth of Australia 2004, published online at http://scaleplus.law.gov.au/

Blackshield, A R, Coper M, & Williams, G (eds) The Oxford Companion to the High Court of Australia, Oxford University Press, 2001

Marantelli, S & Tikotin, C, The Australian Legal Dictionary, (2^nd ed.) Edward Arnold Australia, 1985

Quick, Sir John & Groom, Littleton E, The Judicial Power of the Commonwealth with the Practice and Procedure of the High Court, Charles F Maxwell, 1904

Endnotes

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[i] Justice is the title for judges of superior courts including the High Court of Australia and the State Supreme Courts.  In transcripts of cases, the 'J' after a surname only refers to Justices, not judges of lower courts.  For example, Murphy J:  This is read as Mr Justice Murphy.

[ii]Blackshield, A R, Coper M, & Williams, G (eds) The Oxford Companion to the High Court of Australia, Oxford University Press, 2001, pp 287-288

[iii] Advice from High Court Registry 12/12/05