Strata Plan 87003 v Raysons [2025] NSWSC 66
Owners sued a builder over major defects in common areas. The legal issue was how different limitation periods should apply10. Because the legislation was beneficial in nature, the owners said they should be read ‘so as to give the fullest relief which the fair meaning of [the] language will allow’.
Leeming JA (at [61]) rejected this, saying ‘it is not the case that every leeway of choice … is to be resolved in favour of the person suing for breach of statutory warranty’11. This approach to beneficial legislation is ‘merely a particular case of the more general principle that all legislation is to be construed purposively’12. The same applies to tax provisions13.
This principle is from Episode 119 of interpretation NOW!
Footnotes:
10 s 18E(1) of the Home Building Act 1989 (NSW).
11 Herzfeld & Prince [10-300], NSWALC [2016] HCA 50 [92].
12 [66], Sydney Seaplanes [2021] NSWCA 204 [97], Ryan [2022] FCAFC 36 [110].
13 Gleeson [2009] Justice Hill Memorial Lecture (12), Carr [2007] HCA 47 [5-7].