Bathurst City Council v PWC Properties Pty Ltd

Bathurst City Council v PWC Properties Pty Ltd was a case decided by the High Court on September 30, 1998. The case involved Council-owned land that was being used as a public car park. The respondent (PWC Properties Pty Ltd) sought to change the local planning controls governing the car park, to prohibit the Council from further altering the use of the land to be anything but a public car park. The respondent argued that because the car park was freely available for use by members of the general public, the land was subject to a constructive trust, for charitable purposes. The Court ruled in favour of the appellant (the Council) citing the old English case of Commissioners for Special Purposes of Income Tax v Pemsel (1891) to support its judgment that the imposition of a constructive trust over the land would not create a trust for charitable purposes and that in this circumstances there would be other and more immediate equitable remedies available to the respondent.