LLB358 - Australian Administrative Law Assignment

Assignment Task

Legal memorandum

You have recently commenced work as a summer clerk with a new law firm which is asserting itself in the market as a specialist representation firm for merits review matters.

One of the principals of the firm has asked you to prepare some advice about a case that has come in. The client is Sophia Costa , a breeder and exhibitor of domestic cats (i.e. in cat shows). Sophia has asked the firm to provide some preliminary advice about the process and prospects for success of a review on the merits in the Western Australian State Administrative Tribunal (WASAT).

Your principal has interviewed Sophia. Facts relayed to you by the principal are as follows :

Sophia was, until a few months ago, located in the ‘kennel/cattery zone’ of Canning Vale. However, she has recently been forced to move her home and breeding premises to a new suburb of Barkly in the local government area of Jubilee[1] due to fleeing an abusive relationship. 

Sophia breeds Chausie[2] cats. Sophia makes a good living out of breeding from her three breeding pairs and showing her Chausie at cat shows. She also writes a Chausie substack. She is a member of Cat Breeders United (WA) Incorporated, a breakaway group of disgruntled cat breeders who were previously members of Australian National Cats Incorporated. Sophia leads the renegade group, which formed after she aired some unpopular views on local media about cat breeding, including her view that domestic cats should be allowed to breed more freely with wild cats. This caused arguments with Australian National Cats Incorporated, and she ultimately withdrew her membership.

Late in 2023, immediately after her move to Barkly, Sophia applied to Jubilee Town Council for an approval to breed cats.

Sophia held a cat breeders’ licence in Canning Vale, but she forgot to renew it and it had expired. She needed to apply for a new approval in her new local government area, Jubilee. Because she’d held approval as a cat breeder in Canning Vale, Sophia did not supply much information with her application, instead assuming that the two councils would ‘talk to each other’ and her reputation in the cat breeding industry as a Chausie breeder would ensure a smooth grant of approval. She simply filled in the required forms, including her new address – which is a four bedroom house in a residential area of Barkly. The house is on a very large block and Sophia intends to construct purpose-built cat enclosures for her three beloved breeding pairs.

Approximately two weeks later, to her horror, she received the following notice (via email) from Jubilee:

We regret to advise you that your application for approval as a cat breeder has been refused because you are unable to prove that you have suitable premises and sufficient facilities to breed cats in a safe and ethical way as required by the law. You have also failed to establish that you are a fit and proper person to breed cats, also required by law.

You have a right to object to this decision. You also have a right to seek review of this decision to the State Administrative Tribunal. Time limits apply for both processes. You should check the applicable legislation and regulations.

Sophia was upset and immediately raised an objection under the applicable legislation. The objection was also refused on the same grounds. As part of her objection, Sophia gave the council decision maker further details of her residence, including the fully drawn up plans for the cat enclosure. She also submitted photos of the premises and facilities, which show that she can separate the breeding pairs inside the house in three of the four bedrooms (she sleeps in the fourth), with blankets, food and water, and kitty litter. She did not bother to respond to the allegations about not being a fit and proper person because she feels her departure from ANC Inc is none of the council’s business. She suspects that ANC Inc has written to Jubilee Town Council and made allegations against her in relation to her leaving the organisation.

The decision maker at the council was sympathetic, and accepted that Sophia would work on building the enclosures, but he thought that in the interim, which could be some months, she would not be able meet the requirements for safe and ethical breeding and also she needs to explain why she is no longer associated with Australian National Cats Inc.

Sophia wants to apply for review of the decision to refuse her objection in the WASAT.

This LLB358 - Law has been solved by our PhD Experts at My Uni Paper.