Greenhalgh v Bacas Training Ltd

[2007] QCA 327

SUPREME COURT OF QUEENSLAND

CITATION:

Greenhalgh v Bacas Training Limited & Ors [2007] QCA 327

PARTIES:

JOHN ROBERT GREENHALGH
(plaintiff/respondent)
v
BACAS TRAINING LIMITED ACN 092 797 790
(first defendant/first applicant)

BCP HOLDINGS PTY LTD ACN 097 126 111 trading as BUNDABERG TOYOTA
(second defendant/second applicant)

FILE NO/S:

Appeal No 3493 of 2007
DC No 21 of 2006

DIVISION:

Court of Appeal

PROCEEDING:

Application for Leave s 118 DCA (Civil)

ORIGINATING COURT:

District Court at Brisbane

DELIVERED ON:

5 October 2007

DELIVERED AT:

Brisbane

HEARING DATE:

19 September 2007

JUDGES:

Keane JA, Cullinane and Lyons JJ
Separate reasons for judgment of each member of the Court, each concurring as to the orders made

ORDER:

1. Application for leave to appeal refused

2. Applicants to pay respondent's costs of the application for leave to appeal on the standard basis 

CATCHWORDS:

LIMITATION OF ACTIONS – POSTPONEMENT OF THE BAR – EXTENSION OF PERIOD – CAUSE OF ACTION IN RESPECT OF PERSONAL INJURIES – KNOWLEDGE OF MATERIAL FACTS – MATERIAL FACTS OF DECISIVE CHARACTER – where plaintiff suffered personal injuries in course of employment with defendant – where limitation period extended on basis that medical report on extent of plaintiff's injury enlivened discretion under s 31(2)(a) Limitation of Actions Act 1974 (Qld) – whether learned trial judge erred in concluding report was a material fact of a decisive character

Limitation of Actions Act 1974 (Qld), s 30(1)(b), s 31(2)(a)

Glenn Alexander Pikrt v Hagemeyer Brands Australia Pty Ltd [2006] QCA 112; Appeal No 6605 of 2005, 13 April 2006, applied
Pizer v Ansett Australia Limited [1998] QCA 298; Appeal No 6807 of 1998, 29 September 1998, applied

Wood v Glaxo Australia Pty Ltd [1994] 2 Qd R 431, applied

COUNSEL:

R J Douglas SC for the applicants
D B Fraser QC, with R B Dickson, for the respondent

SOLICITORS:

Carter Newell for the applicants
Payne Butler Lang for the respondent

1. KEANE JA:  The respondent (to whom I will refer as "the plaintiff") suffered personal injuries on 11 October 2001 in the course of his employment with the first defendant when he was struck by a motor vehicle while the first defendant was doing work for the second defendant. 

1. On 30 March 2007, pursuant to s 31(2) of the Limitation of Actions Act 1974 (Qld) ("the Act"), the learned primary judge extended the limitation period for an action for damages for negligence to be brought by the plaintiff in respect of these injuries until 21 June 2007. The basis for this order was that a material fact of a decisive character, namely the opinion of Dr Van der Walt, an orthopaedic surgeon, on the extent of the plaintiff's injury, was not within the plaintiff's knowledge or means of knowledge until 21 June 2006.

1. The applicants (to whom I will refer as "the defendants") seek to argue that the learned primary judge erred in failing to appreciate that the report of 21 June 2006 did not add materially or decisively to the plaintiff's…