Goryl v Greyhound Australia Pty Limited & Anor; Lloyd v Greyhound Australia Pty Limited

The applicants, Mr Goryl and Mr Lloyd, were passengers on a Greyhound bus travelling from Brisbane to Sydney. They purchased their tickets in Brisbane and were injured in New South Wales, alleging negligence on the part of the bus driver. They commenced proceedings in Queensland, where the bus was registered and the bus company operated. The respondents, Greyhound Australia Pty Limited and Suncorp Insurance and Finance, raised a defence that the applicants could only recover damages assessed according to New South Wales law, not Queensland law, due to a specific section of Queensland legislation. The matter came before the High Court of Australia on applications for removal.

The central legal issue before the High Court was whether section 20 of the Queensland Motor Vehicles Insurance Act 1988 (Qld) was invalid to the extent that it discriminated against subjects of the Queen who were residents of other States, contrary to section 117 of the Australian Constitution. Specifically, the applicants argued that the section, by limiting damages recoverable to the amount permissible in the state of the injured person's principal place of residence, conferred a privilege on Queensland residents that was denied to residents of other states, thereby constituting unconstitutional discrimination.

The applicants contended that section 20 of the Act, which stipulated that damages for accidental bodily injury caused by a motor vehicle could not exceed the amount recoverable under the law of the state of the injured person's principal place of residence, operated to restrict their recovery to New South Wales damages. They argued that this provision, by conferring a benefit on Queensland residents that was not available to residents of other states injured in similar circumstances, contravened section 117 of the Constitution, which prohibits discrimination against subjects of the Queen residing in different states. The applicants sought to strike down so much of the section as imposed a residency condition, thereby rendering the privilege of recovering full Queensland damages universally applicable.