Commonwealth Numbered Acts

PROCEEDS OF CRIME ACT 1987 No. 87, 1987 - SECT 54

54. (1) Where:

   (a)  a court has made a restraining order directing the Official Trustee to
        take custody and control of all the property of a person or of all the
        property of a person other than specified property;

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

   (c)  the first-mentioned person did not, at the date of the restraining
        order, have any beneficial interest in the property referred to in
        paragraph (b); the Official Trustee is not personally liable for:

   (d)  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

   (e)  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
made in reliance on a person's conviction of an offence or in reliance on the
charging, or proposed charging, of a person with an offence, taken custody and
control of property specified in the restraining order, the Official Trustee
is not personally liable for:

   (a)  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

   (b)  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 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 the 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 the order.

(4) Where the Official Trustee, having 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 or extended leave for which the person was
liable or for any payment in respect of long service leave or extended leave
to which a person employed by the Official Trustee in its capacity of
custodian and controller of the business, or the legal personal representative
of such a person, becomes entitled after the date of the order.