This matter was lodged in the Tribunal on 1 October 2025 and, following an urgently-convened directions hearing held on 3 October 2025 at which both parties had legal representation, was timetabled for abbreviated preparation and listed for full hearing on 14 October 2025. Preparation by the parties was necessarily abbreviated because of the timeframe laid down by s 12A(3) of the Land Acquisition Act by which the Tribunal had to complete its proceedings on the review by 22 October 2025.
On 13 October 2025 the applicants made an application to the Registry for adjournment of the full hearing on medical grounds. No medical evidence was supplied. The adjournment was declined. The applicants renewed the adjournment application via senior and junior counsel who appeared on their behalf at the scheduled time for commencement of the full hearing on 14 October 2025. At that time a medical certificate was provided to the Tribunal in support of the applicants' adjournment application, evidencing that Ms Koula Raptis was unwell and would be fit again on 17 October 2025.
Due to the unavailability of Ms Koula Raptis and subsequently of the respondent's expert witness, the parties did not put forward any alternative hearing date to the Tribunal which would have enabled the Tribunal to complete its proceedings on the review by 22 October 2025.
The Tribunal was thus placed in the position of not being able to complete its proceedings on the review by 22 October 2025 without either forcing the applicants to proceed on 14 October 2025 despite the illness of one of them, or forcing the respondent to proceed on a date on which the respondent's witness was not available.
This was the context in which the Tribunal ruled on 14 October 2025 that it would adjourn the full hearing of this matter to 23 October 2025, and would extend the time for the Tribunal's completion of the review until as soon as practicable following the conclusion of the full hearing on 23 October 2025.
The Tribunal's ruling on 14 October 2025 was made because of the exigencies of the situation faced by the Tribunal, the impossibility of scheduling a hearing that complied with the time limit of s 12A(3) of the Land Acquisition Act without serious inconvenience to one or other of the parties, and the fact that it was possible to schedule the full hearing on 23 October 2025 with only minimal delay and without compromising either party receiving a fair hearing. In any future matters to which s 12A(3) of the Land Acquisition Act applies, the ruling of 14 October 2025 ought to be understood in that specific context in which it was made.
[2]
I have had regard to the material that was before the Commissioner of Highways and to the additional written and oral evidence put before the Tribunal on review.
I consider that the decision made on 24 September 2025 is the correct and preferable decision and that it should be affirmed.
[3]
The Tribunal affirms the decision under review.
Pursuant to ss 60(2)(g) and (h) of the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2013, the disclosure is prohibited of the marked but unredacted contents of Volume 1 of the Section 35 Book of Documents to the applicants or to any other person apart from the respondent, his legal representatives, and members and staff of the Tribunal in the course of their duties.