Cameron v Irwin

The appellant, Robert Miles Fletcher Cameron, a medical practitioner, sued the respondents, also medical practitioners, in the Supreme Court of Western Australia for damages for injury to his profession. A jury found a verdict for the plaintiff, awarding £200 in damages, and judgment was entered accordingly. The defendants then applied to the Full Court of Western Australia to set aside this judgment, arguing there was no evidence that their intention was to injure the plaintiff. The Full Court agreed, reversed the Supreme Court's judgment, and entered judgment for the defendants. The plaintiff sought special leave to appeal this decision to the High Court of Australia.

The legal issues before the High Court concerned whether the Full Court had erred in setting aside the jury's verdict and entering judgment for the defendants. Specifically, the appellant argued that the Full Court had no authority to enter judgment for the defendants without first setting aside the jury's verdict, and that there were no grounds to do so. The appellant contended that there was sufficient evidence from which reasonable men could conclude that the defendants' combination was used to oppress and injure him.

The High Court refused special leave to appeal. Griffith C.J. stated that the question was entirely one of fact. The Court implicitly accepted that the Full Court had the power to review the evidence and enter judgment for the defendants if it found no evidence to support the jury's verdict. The refusal was based on the assessment that the matter was primarily factual and did not raise a significant legal principle warranting appellate intervention.

Special leave to appeal was refused, and the motion was dismissed with costs.