Progressive Recycling Pty Ltd v Eversham

Progressive Recycling Pty Ltd (appellant) appealed to the Court of Appeal of New South Wales against a decision of the trial judge who found in favour of the respondent, a former employee who had suffered injury while working as a runner on a recycling truck. The respondent was found unconscious on the highway, and although the precise circumstances of the accident were not directly observed and the respondent had no recollection of the event, the trial judge inferred that a tree branch had likely knocked the respondent from the truck, which was travelling at an excessive speed.

The central legal issue before the Court of Appeal was whether there was a sufficient evidentiary basis for the inferences drawn by the trial judge regarding the cause of the respondent's fall and the speed of the truck. Specifically, the court had to determine the grounds upon which a tribunal of fact is entitled to draw an inference in the absence of direct evidence.

The Court of Appeal upheld the trial judge's findings. The court reasoned that while direct evidence was lacking, the circumstantial evidence was sufficient to support the inferences made. The judges applied the principle that a tribunal of fact is entitled to draw inferences from established facts, provided those inferences are rational and probable, even if they are not the only possible inferences. The court found that the inferences drawn by the trial judge were open to him on the evidence presented.

The appeal was dismissed with costs.