Air Link Pty Limited v Paterson; Agtrack (NT) Pty Limited v Hatfield

The High Court of Australia considered appeals from decisions of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory in two separate matters, Air Link Pty Limited v Paterson and Agtrack (NT) Pty Limited v Hatfield. Both cases concerned claims for damages for personal injury arising from the operation of aircraft. In Air Link, the appellant was the operator of a helicopter and the respondent was a passenger who suffered injury. In Agtrack, the appellant was the operator of a fixed-wing aircraft and the respondent was a passenger who suffered injury.

The central legal issue before the High Court was the proper interpretation and application of section 17 of the Civil Aviation (Carriers' Liability) Act 1959 (Cth) (the Act). Specifically, the Court had to determine whether the liability of an air carrier for death or bodily injury to a passenger under the Act was limited to the amounts specified in the Second Schedule to the Act, or whether a passenger could claim damages in excess of those limits where the carrier's liability arose from a breach of contract or tort.

The High Court, by majority, held that section 17 of the Act, when read in conjunction with the Second Schedule, imposed a statutory limit on the liability of an air carrier for death or bodily injury to passengers, regardless of whether the claim was framed in contract or tort. The Court reasoned that the Act was intended to provide a comprehensive scheme for the limitation of liability in air carriage, and that to allow claims exceeding these limits would undermine the purpose of the legislation. The majority rejected the argument that the Act only applied to claims in tort, finding that its provisions extended to all claims for death or bodily injury arising from the carriage of passengers by air.

Consequently, the High Court allowed the appeals, setting aside the judgments of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory and remitting the matters for re-assessment of damages in accordance with the statutory limits prescribed by the Act.