Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

CUSTOMS ACT 1901 - SECT 243N

  (1)   Where:

  (a)   the Court has made a restraining order directing the Official Trustee to take custody and control of property of a person;

  (b)   the Official Trustee has taken custody and control of any property in the possession, or on the premises, of the person without notice of any claim by another person in respect of that property; and

  (c)   the person did not, at the date of the order, have any beneficial interest in the property referred to in paragraph   (b);

the Official Trustee is not personally liable for any loss or damage arising from its having taken custody and control of the property sustained by a person claiming the property or an interest in the property, or for the cost of proceedings taken to establish a claim to the property or to an interest in the property, unless the court in which the claim is made is of the opinion that the Official Trustee has been guilty of negligence in respect of the taking of custody and control of the property.

  (2)   Where the Official Trustee has, in accordance with a restraining order, taken custody and control of property of a person specified in the order, the Official Trustee is not personally liable for any loss or damage arising from its having taken custody and control of the property (being loss or damage sustained by some other person claiming the property or an interest in the property), or for the cost of proceedings taken to establish a claim to the property, or to an interest in the property, unless the court in which the claim is made is of the opinion that the Official Trustee has been guilty of negligence in respect of the taking of custody and control of the property.

  (3)   The Official Trustee is not personally liable for any rates, land tax or municipal or other statutory charges imposed by or under a law of the Commonwealth or of a State or Territory upon or in respect of property of which it has been directed by a restraining order to take custody and control, being rates, land tax or municipal or other statutory charges that fall due on or after the date of that order, except to the extent, if any, of the rents and profits received by the Official Trustee in respect of that property on or after the date of that order.

  (4)   Where the Official Trustee who has been directed by a restraining order to take custody and control of a business carried on by a person carries on that business, the Official Trustee is not personally liable for any payment in respect of long service leave for which the person was liable or for any payment in respect of long service leave to which a person employed by the Official Trustee in its capacity of manager of the business, or the legal personal representative of such a person, becomes entitled after the date of that order.