Postnet Pty Ltd v Wood

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE   )
  )          No. ACTCA 4 of 2002
AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY )

BETWEEN:POSTNET PTY LIMITED

Appellant

AND:DAVID BENJAMIN ANDREW WOOD

First Respondent

AND:CAMERON DOUGLAS BROWN

Second Respondent

CORRIGENDA

Judges:  Crispin P, Higgins and Gray JJ
Date:  8 November 2002
Place:  Canberra

Amendments to Judgment dated 8 November 2002

1. The word “appellant” in paragraph 1 be replaced by the word “respondent”.

2. The word “that” immediately following the word “contended” be deleted.

Associate to Justice Crispin

8 November 2002

POSTNET PTY LIMITED v DAVID BENJAMIN ANDREW WOOD and CAMERON DOUGLAS BROWN [2002] ACTCA 5 (8 November 2002)

CATCHWORDS

NEGLIGENCE – causation – breach of duty by nightclub proprietor in permitting patrons to go through window onto awning on outside of building – whether injury sustained by plaintiff climbing to and falling from the top of an adjoining building caused by such breach of duty – whether injury reasonably foreseeable.

Australian Safeway Stores Pty Ltd v Zaluzna (1987) 162 CLR 479
Wyong Shire Council v Shirt (1980) 146 CLR 40
Phillis v Daly (1988) 15 NSWLR 65
Morawski v State Rail Authority of NSW (1988) 14 NSWLR 374
Downunder Rock Café Pty Ltd v Roberts (Victorian Court of Appeal) (1998) Aust Torts Reports ¶81-481
March v Stramere Pty Ltd (1991) 171 CLR 506
Mahoney v J. Kruschich (Demolitions) Pty Ltd (1985) 156 CLR 522
Jolley v Sutton London Borough Council [2000] 1 WLR 1082

No. ACTCA 4 of 2002

Judges:        Crispin P, Higgins and Gray JJ
Court of Appeal of the ACT
Date:           8 November 2002

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE   )
  )          No. ACTCA 4 of 2002
AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY )

BETWEEN:POSTNET PTY LIMITED

Appellant

AND:DAVID BENJAMIN ANDREW WOOD

First Respondent

AND:CAMERON DOUGLAS BROWN

Second Respondent

ORDER

Judges:  Crispin P, Higgins and Gray JJ
Date:  8 November 2002
Place:  Canberra

THE COURT ORDERS THAT:

1. the appeal be upheld;

2. the cross-appeal be dismissed;

3. the judgment in favour of the first respondent be set aside;

4. in lieu thereof, judgment be entered for the appellant;

5. the first respondent pay the appellant’s costs of the appeal and of the proceedings before the Master.

1. This is an appeal against a decision of the Master to award damages for personal injuries sustained by the appellant on 26 June 1996 when he fell from a building in Canberra.

1. The respondent and a friend, who were both then in their early twenties, had attended a nightclub trading under the name of “Late Night Heaven” which the appellant had operated in licensed premises on the first floor of a building adjacent to the one from which the respondent later fell.  During the course of the evening he and his friend apparently found it difficult to maintain a conversation due to the noise.  They left the nightclub through a window and walked along the metal awning running along the front of both buildings until reaching a point about 41 metres from the window.  Both men then climbed up…