March v E. & M.H. Stramare Pty Ltd

In this matter before the High Court of Australia, the appellant, Peter Maxwell March, appealed against a decision of the Full Court. The core of the dispute concerned the application of the legal principles of causation and contributory negligence in the context of the apportionment legislation.

The High Court was required to determine whether the majority of the Full Court had misunderstood or misapplied the principle of causation. Alternatively, if the majority had not erred in their understanding of causation, the Court had to consider whether their decision had, in effect, revived or reintroduced common law principles regarding contributory negligence that were intended to be superseded by apportionment legislation.

The appellant argued that the majority of the Full Court had misapplied the principle of causation. However, if the Court found that causation was correctly applied, the appellant contended that the majority's decision necessarily implied a survival of the old common law treatment of contributory negligence, which the apportionment legislation, specifically section 27a(3), was designed to abolish. The appellant submitted that the common law rules, such as the "last opportunity" rule, were extinct and that the introduction of apportionment legislation rendered them inappropriate for modern application.