Inghams Enterprises Pty Ltd v Anka Johnson [No 2]

Inghams Enterprises Pty Ltd (the appellant) appealed to the New South Wales Court of Appeal against a decision of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. The dispute concerned the appellant's liability for damages arising from the death of the respondent's husband, who was employed by the appellant and died in a workplace accident. The respondent had commenced proceedings against the appellant seeking damages for nervous shock.

The primary legal issue before the Court of Appeal was whether the appellant owed a duty of care to the respondent, who was not an employee but the wife of an employee, to prevent her from suffering nervous shock as a result of witnessing the aftermath of a workplace accident that killed her husband. This involved considering the scope of the duty of care owed by an employer to third parties, specifically in the context of psychiatric injury.

The Court of Appeal, applying established principles of negligence, found that the appellant did owe a duty of care to the respondent. The court reasoned that it was reasonably foreseeable that an employer's negligence leading to the death of an employee could cause psychiatric injury to a close relative who witnessed the immediate aftermath of the accident. The court considered the proximity between the appellant's actions and the respondent's injury, and the fact that the respondent's presence at the scene was not unforeseeable. The appeal was dismissed.