Mt Isa City Council v Desmond; Desmond v McIntyre

This matter concerns an application for special leave to appeal to the High Court of Australia. The dispute arose from a motor cyclist's accident on an intersection in Mt Isa. The applicant, Mt Isa City Council, sought special leave to appeal a decision of the Full Court of the Supreme Court of Queensland. The respondent, Desmond, was the injured motor cyclist.

The central legal issue before the High Court was whether the Full Court had correctly applied the principles established in *Buckle v Bayswater Road* (1936) 57 CLR 259. Specifically, the Court was asked to consider the extent of a local authority's duty of care in relation to road layouts and the necessary measures to mitigate foreseeable hazards, particularly where a subdivision was developed with an unformed road connecting to a main road.

The applicant argued that the Full Court had misapplied the test from *Buckle v Bayswater Road*. The Full Court had found that the local authority had permitted a subdivision based on a road layout that inherently possessed dangerous features. The Court reasoned that the authority should have either completed the roadworks by sealing, curbing, and channelling the unsealed section, or taken appropriate steps to warn the public and maintain the road to guard against the hazard. The applicant contended that the unsealed portion of the road was not part of the subdivision's design or construction, and that the authority had only provided a thin bitumen strip connecting the subdivision to the main road.