NSW Thoroughbred Racing Board v Waterhouse & Anor

(2003) 56 NSWLR 691; [2003] NSWCA 55

NSW Court of Appeal

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Administrative Law
2. › Racing industry
3. › Three-tiered internal tribunal system
4. › Nature of appeal to final tier
5. › Whether appeal requires finding of error or permits de novo consideration
6. › Racing Appeals Tribunal Act 1983 (NSW), ss 15, 17, 18
7. › Racing Appeals Tribunal Regulation 1999, cll 6, 7, 12, 15
1. Administrative Law
2. › Racing industry
3. › Appeals
4. › Power to increase penalty on appellant's own appeal
5. › Whether Tribunal confined to grounds of appeal
6. › Whether Tribunal can increase penalty absent error within grounds
7. › Racing Appeals Tribunal Regulation 1999, cl 7(3)
1. Administrative Law
2. › Natural justice
3. › Racing appeals
4. › Whether appellant entitled to warning that increase in penalty under serious consideration
5. › Whether denial of procedural fairness
1. Gaming and Wagering
2. › Horse racing
3. › Bookmakers
4. › Whether transactions were 'bets' or 'legitimate wagers'
5. › Intention of parties
6. › Bipartite character of wagering transactions
7. › Rules of Racing, LR91(q)

Quick Take

The appeal from the Appeal Panel to the Racing Appeals Tribunal under s 15(a) of the Racing Appeals Tribunal Act 1983 requires detection and correction of error, not de novo consideration. The Tribunal is confined to the appellant's grounds of appeal by Regulation 7(3) and cannot add its own grounds or increase penalty on the basis of errors not raised in the grounds. Transactions placed by a bookmaker as both principal and agent at extraordinary odds designed to confer a benefit rather than to wager are not 'legitimate wagers' within LR91(q). The question whether an appeal to the Tribunal under s 15(b) (Panel default) is de novo was left open but the Court expressed a preference for that view.