Monad (Constructions) Pty Ltd v. Fernance, James Matthew [1979] FCA 74
Federal Court of Australia
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CATCHWORDS
Negligence - employer's duty to provide a safe system of
work - adequacy of employer's instructions to employees -
contributory negligence - findings of trial judge -
function of appellate court.
Monad_ (Constructions) Pty. Limited v. James Matthew Fernance
R.CTN0G 4 of 1979
Coram: Smithers, Blackburn and Franki JJ.
25 July 1979
Canberra
'
FRET MENEAME Tat oe ate — a
IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA )
AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY
DISTRICT REGISTRY
GENERAL DIVISION
JUDGES MAKING ORDER:
DATE OF ORDER:
WHERE MADE:
The Court orders that:
RCT. NoG4 of 1979
}
BETWEEN: MONAD(CONSTRUCTIONS)
PLY. LIMITED
Appellant
AND: JAMES MATTHEW FERNANCE
Respondent
ORDER
Smithers, Blackburn and Franki JJ.
25 July 1979
Canberra
1. The appeal be dismissed with costs.
at ee --
&
IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA
AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY
a A.CT NoG4 of 1979
DISTRICT REGISTRY
GENERAL DIVISION
ON APPEAL FROM THE SUPREME COURT
OF THE AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY
BETWEEN: MONAD (CONSTRUCTIONS) Pty,
LIMITED
Appellant
AND: JAMES MATTHEW FERNANCE
Respondent
CORAM: Smithers, Blackburn and Franki JJ.
CANBERRA
25 July 1979
REASONS FOR JUDGMENT
In this appeal from the Supreme Court of the
Australian Capital Territory the appellant Monad (Constructions)
Pty. Limited was the first defendant to a claim for damages by the
respondent Mr, James Matthew Fernmce,. "r. Reginald Davis was the
second defendant, The respondent claimed that his employer, the
"3
appellant, had been negligent end that he hed suffered injury thereby.
The learned trial judge found that the respondent
was ingured on 14 September 1972 in the manner which he
described in evidence. The respondent said that he and Davis
were unloeding a heavy gelvanized iron shed, the property
of his employer, from the back of a truck also owned by his
employer. In the course of unloading, as the respondent put it,
he momentarily "copped the weight", the exact amount of which
is not known, but the shed weighed atout 580 lbs. The result
was the respondent suffered a serious ingury to his back. He
claimed that this accident was the result of a failure by his
employer to take reasonable care for his safety at work. He
also sued Mr. Davis. The learned trial gudge gave judgment for
the respondent against the appellant, and dismissed the
respondent's claim against Mr. Davis who 1s not party to this
appeal. The appellant before this Court contended that, on
the evidence, the respondent's claim should have been dismissed,
as no finding of negligence should have been made against the
appellant. The appellant contended also that if on the evidence
the finding that the respondent's inguries resulted from
negligence on the part of the appellent be affirmed, there
should have been a finding that the respondent was guilty of
contributory negligence. The question of damages is not 1n issues
i)
We consider that the Court should deal with
this appeal in accordance with the following principles.
First, it accepts facts which were and are undisputed. Secondly, at
least in general, 1t accepts a finding of primary fect by a
trial gudge, where there was evidence on which he could make such
a finding, notwithstanding that the evidence was disputed
and the trial gudge's dec1sion turned on the credibility
of witnesses. In such a case, the trial judge has the
very valuable advantage of hearing and seeing the
witnesses. Thirdly, findings by the trial judge which
are in the nature of inferences from primary facts found
by him, are open to scrutiny by this Court on the
principles enuncieted by the majority of the High
Court 1n Warren v. Cocmbes, (1979) 53 A.D.J.R. 293. This
is that an appellate Court in deciding what is the
proper inference to be drawn from facts which are
undisputed or which, having been disputed, are established
by the findings of the trial jucge will give respect
and weight to the conclusion of the trial gudge but,
_,once having, reached_its own _ccrnclusion, will not shrink
from giving effect to 1t.
At the trial there were serious difficulties cf directly
conflicting evidence which the learned trial judge discussed
and carefully examined in his judgment. A major contention
of the appellant at the trial was tnat the incident of which the
respondent gave evidence rever occurred. The respondent's
account was that while he was at work driving the appellant's
truck he was ordered by radio to collect, from a specific site
in Fyshwick, a large "site shed" which was a corrugated iren
Nal
structure used by the appellant for storing building materials
under lock and key during the perzod when a buzlding has not
progressed to the state at which 1t can be locked up. According
to the respondent he »roceeded to the site, it
was there loaded on the truck by about eight men and he was
then ordered to take 1% to a specific site in Weetangere
to unload. Thereafter the respondent drove with Davis
to Weetangera. He said that with Davis he was removing the
shed from the truck at the nominated site in Weetangera when
the accident happened.
The respondent gave evidence that the building on
the site wnere he and Davis unloacec the shcd, hed reached
the stage of foundations only. This would be consistent with
the need for a site shed there.
The evidence adduced for the appellant tended to show
that the incident could not have occurred at the time, at the
place, and in the manner describec by the respondent, Davis
denied that he had ever been in a truck with the respondent
on an occasion such as that described by ham,
There was evidence tending to show that at
the relevant time there were only two building sites in Weelangera
on which the company was working, and that buildings on both
those sites had progressed to a much more advanced stage than
that described by the respondent, The respondent, some little
time after the accident, made a claim on a printed
form for workmen's compensation and the hour of
the day and place of the accident contazned therein vere
altogether different from those given in his evidence,
On each of these matters, however, there was evidence
which somewhat reduced the weight of the appellant's evidcnce.
The reliability of Davis' memory was shown tc be questionable,
and the learned trial gudge found that he appeared to be confused
at times, The evidence that there were no building sites other
than the two which did not answer the description given by the rcspon-
dent was shown to rest on the recollection of the employecs oF the
appellant of events of six years earlier snd not directly on any doc-
uments produced in evidence. The printed form on which the claim vas
made was shown to have been signed by the resvondent at a time when
some of the detaiis had not been filled in, This form was complcted
by another employee of the appellant from inrormation
given from sources other than the respondent. It was shown,
however, that it was the respondcnt who filled in Davis! nane
as a witness of the accident - a remarkable thing to do if
Davis was not in fact present. yet the respondent's claim for
workmen's compensation was met. Some other employees cof the
appellant who could have denied the truth of the respondent's
evidence that the shed was loaaed on to the truck in the first
place, were not called, and no explanation was given of their
absence,
The evidence in conflict with the respondent's evidence
was mainly that of Davis. Beyond referring to the confusion
in the evidence of Davis the leerned judge did not specify
any particular aspect of his evidence which caused him ultimately
to regard it as unacceptable. We have no difficulty in conclucing
'
wi
that the learned judge was right in so regarding it.
There were specific items of the evidence of Davis
which were tnevitably open to criticism, Early
; in his evidence Davis said that 1n the course of
loading and unloading site sheds over a pericd in the
comnpany
of the respondent he had never even touched the ropes wiich held
a shed on to a truck. In cross-examiunation he at first repeated
this but later said "I never untied them. Perhaps maybe cne
alleged in the case against Davis.
i
~
to be asserting an almost complete Jack of knowled
'Dp
side I used to untie", Later he agreed that from time to time
he would clear the ropes away. He said that he had meant that
he had never tied a shed on vith then, Failing to properly
2 release one of the ropes was one of the items of negligence
. On the question of shed sizes, Davis appeared at first
large sheds,which he said was a "funny thing", But gradually
auite a good memory of the large sheds returned to him.
event in which the respondent said he was injured con
one of the large sheds.
cerned
In the course of tlis evidence Davis said that he had not
used any document to refresh his recollection before giving
evidence and that he did not have and had never been given
a copy of any statement or anything of the sort, Later he
said that he had made and signed such a statement, in fact
that he had made two statements, one in 1975 and one a couple
of days earlier and had used one of them for the purvose of
refreshing his recollection so as to prepare himself to
give evidence and thal the statement was in his possession
at his home. Generally, 1t may also be said thet on 2 reading
of the evidence of Davis 1t evokes a feeling of unease.
The learned trial gudge, while recognizing, and vei'y
carefully dealing with, the difficulties caused by the
conflict of evidence, found as a fact that the accident prohably
occurred in the manner and at the time and place described
by the respondent. There was ample evidence to support this
finding.
This Court nas carefully considered all the evidence
in conflict with that of the respondent and the criticisms of
the respondent's evidence. This evidence was persuasively
marshalled by senior counsel for the appellant, but in total.
effect it fell far short of persuading this Court to come to
a different conclusion, The evidence in conflict with the
~respondent's evidence -and the criticisms of that evidence are
discussed in detail below ~ at this stage it 1s sufficient
to say that having regard to the great advantage enjoyed
by the learned gudge, of seeing and hearing the witnesses, this
Court has no disposition to differ from his finding of fact,
turning as 1t did on the credibility of the witnesses and a
careful examination of the relevant evidencc, both an fevour
of the respondent's story and against it.
The second major argument for the appellant was thet,
assuming the truth of the substence of the resvondent's evidences,
we tee ete et ee
we eA Ghat
the inference that the appellant was negligent should not have
been drawn. Here, of course, as pointed out by the High Court
in Warren v. Coombes (supra), this Court has much freedom to
come to its own conclusion.
It appears that before the accident there were two kinds
of "site shed" used by the appellant. One was the kind which was
involved in the accident, This is called the large shed, its
dimensions were 10' x 8' x 6', The respondent gave evidence of the
instruction he had received before the accident for moving this kind
of shed. This was that to move the shed it had to be casauntied by un-
bolting the roof from the walls and the walls from the floor. Hach
of the larger walls weighed about 100 lbs, and the other parts
of the shed were correspondingly heavy. This instruction,
according to the respondent, was given by another employce of
the appellant called Betts. He was not called by the appellant
at the trial, and no explanation vas given for his absence. The
respondent said that he had never before the accident moved a
shed of this kind in its assembled state, and this evidence
was not challenged.
The other kind of shed measured about 6' x 6' x 4', This
smaller shed weaghed about one third as much as the larger,
and the respondent gave evidence also of the anstruction he had
received in the manner of unloading it. In effect, this was
that the shed in its assembled state was to be pushed towards
the back of the tray of the truck on whih it was resting, and
then tipped over the edge in a manner which involved a man
standing on the ground and exercising some control over its
fall; this necessarily involved momentarily taking some weight.
In the respondent's words, describing the occasion when he
performed this operation under insLructions:
".,.so it tilted and I just held the part of the
top of it, the roof part as it was tilting."
He said that a Mr, Stocks, described ¢s the "maintenance man"
for the appellant, and the respondent's superior as en employes,
actually gave him the instruction in the handling of the small
shed, and although it was not said that Mr. Stocks explicitly
anstructed the respondent to control the shed as it tilted,
in the manner described, nevertneless he watched the respondent
doing this and did not correct him. Mr. Stocks was not called
as a witness to deny the respondent's account, and no reason
was given for this absence.
" Thé respondént's"evidence was that on the day of the
accident his orders to pick up the shed, and deliver it to the
site where the accident occurred, were given to him by redio by
two different persons, both superior to him, in the employ of
the appellant. Both these persons, Mr. Conroy and Mr. Roden the letter
being a director of the appellant, gave evidence for the appeller.t,
and each said that he could not deny that such an order was given
to the respondent in the manner described, though Mr. Roden said
that it was not Mr. Conroy's job at that time to give such
orders, Mr. Conroy did not agree with Me. Togen on wuss
question. The respondent's account of the matter was that the
gob was described as urgent, indeed that when he demurred about
doing it that day because of other work he had to carry out
Mr. Roden antervened over the radio saying "You're bloody
well going to do it today". Conroy pointed out that the shed
had to be moved from Fyshwick to make room for a concrete pour,
and it had to be delivered to the Weetangera site that day,
because the next day mater1als were to be delivered there.
The respondent said that in obedience to this order he took his
truck to the place in Fyshwick where the shed was, and that the
shed was then in its assembled state lifted on the truck by
DOT re an (ne egress grey oo ere ene ees
eight men at the direction of Stocks and the respondent said
be again spoke to Conroy by radio and told him that it was
a shed of the large size and asked him how it was to be
removed from the truck, The respondent said that Conroy in-
structed him simply to "slide it off" and that he seid
to Conroy, "We'll give it a go". When the respondent and Davis
arrived at the site, there were no other workmen there. ,
The respondent said that if they had dismantled the shed as
it stood on the truck it would have fallen apart. It appears
that he and Davis removed the shed from the truck in the manner
in which the respondent had been taught to remove the smaller
type of shed. After manoeuvring the shed a short distance whilst they
stood on the ground, the next movement of the shed was done
by sitting on the tray of the truck with their backs to the back~board
and pushing with their legs. Thon they dismounted and pushed the edges
of the shed which projected over the edges of the tray, so as to ;
swivel it alternately in one direction and the other. The respondentts
account then went on as to the final moments before he was injured
as follows:-
"And were you able to see Reg from where you were?-~-
Occasionally.
And where was he?---ile was on the opposite side of
the truck ~ the same end,
And did you then commence the push pull slewing
ection®--~- Yes sir.
And what happened next?--~ We had a breather. And
I said, well, it looks like its close vo
the point of balance, just go a little bit more.
Yes?~-- And we took positions and we started, I follt Reg sore
of pull as I was pulling, he was pushing.
Yes?--~ And I went bacl:, pushed egain and when [ went to pull
back it was a bit heavier, the next minutc I
copped the weight, sir."
It was at this point that the respondent felt the sharp pain
in his back, the first symptom of the ingury of which he
complains.
In its criticism of the evidence of the respondent, the
appellant relied particularly upon the respondent's answer
to interrogatory eight, the erroneous particulars of some of
the relevant events appearing in his written claim for
Workmen's Compensation which is discussed above, and his
description of the manner in which he said he suffered his
injuries. It was said that the respondent's answer to
interrogatory eight was critical. It operated, so it was said,
to establish that the respondent had been instructed by Mr.
Stocks in March 1972 that "whenever I was required to unload
a fully assembled shed from a truck that I was to slide the shed
to the back of the truck until 1t tips off the end of the truck
and hits th? ground and then drive the truck slowly away".
It was said that ta unload the shed by this manner did not
unvolve taking weight. It was urged that an
instruction to unload the shed in the manner described in
this answer involved no danger and satisfied
the duty of the appellant to give adequate instructions to
the respondent. It was urged for the appellant also that to
introduce a weight taking element into the operation was to
fail to take reasonable care for himself.
But there 1s a risk of error in taking the terms of an
answer to an interrogatory expressed in condensed terms as a
complete and satisfactory statement binding a party in matters
of detail. The respondent to a set of interrogatories and
those advising him must recognise the heavy responsibility
therein involved and the risk to the respondent's case if by
reason of a casual approach the answer does not fully represent
the situation. But unfortunately the scrutiny necessary to
ensure that the answer 1s correct and conveys everything that
at trial may be expected of it is sometimes not given. In this
case the answer was prepared in Canberra, and sent to the
respondent at Cessnock. The respondent was nineteen years old
and unacquainted with documents and 1t is a real possibility that
he would not have understood the precise significance of wnat
was in the document. Examination of the evidence satisfies us that
the answer does not fully represent the situation to which it refers.
'As stated above, Mr. Stocks was not called to give evidence aaa nis
absence was unexplained. The only oral evidence as to the instruct-—
ions in fact given by Stocks is that of the resvondent. From
that evidence 1t 1s clear that the instructions given to him
concerned only the method of loading and unloading the smaller
sheds. They were, in the words of the answer to the interrogetory
set out above, "fully assembled" sheds. In the context of the
evidence it is clear that the expression "a fully assembled
shed" is used to designate one of the small sheds. It is
apparent that at the stage when the instructions were given
ES ee,
about the fully assembled sheds not one large shed had ever
been loaded or unloaded 1n a fully assembled state. They
had always been divided into sections for transport. The
instructions referred to in the answer to interrogatory e1gint
were given in a demonstration by Mr. Stocks to the respond-nt
of the method of loading and unloading a small shed which did
not have to be dismantled for transport, The manner of un-
loading included manvally or bodily manoeuvring the shed to the
back of the truck, and then, as instructed by Mr. Stocks,
"Just pull 1t out a bit further and let 1t come dowm", Then
as tne respondent said, "It tilted and I yust held the part of
the top of it, the roof part, as it was tilting".
Involved in this was the moving of the shed to the rear
of the truck and allowing it to tilt and then taking some
weight in steadying it as it went Wown to the ground. The
demonstration and instruction had nothing to do with the method
of loading and unloading large sheds. This was manifestly so,
because it was the practice to dismantle such sneds. As
stated above the respondent had given evidence of being in-
structed by one Betts as to the manner of loading end unloading
the large sheds for transportation, He said that the
instruction was that such sheds be dismantled. Betts was at
the time an employee of the appellant. He was not called as
a witness and no explanation for that omission was given.
This evidence of the respordent as to these instructions
is inherently probable and the appellant could so easily
have -Gisproved it by evidence of Betts or Stocks and
other members of 1ts staff. Certainly the answer to interrogatory
eight omits any reference to steadying the shed as 1t tilted
but for reasons indicated above there 1s no reason to doubt the
instructions the respondent had received about unloading the Llarfe
sheds anc the small sheds including the demonstration in the
presence of Mr. Stocks.
The consequence of this 1s that 1¢ is to be inferred
that except for Conroy's instruction on the day of the
accident, to slide the large shed off the truck, no instruction
was given to the respondent as to how to unload one of the
large sheds in one piece. The reason for this was that when
Mr. Stock's demonstration and instruction were given the idea
of transporting a large shed in one piece was unknown.
The consequence of this was that when the day did come to
unload the large shed in one piece all the respondent cou2d Go
was to remember that he had been told to slide it off, make
use of his experience and instructions about unloading the
small sheds, and adapt accordingly.
The inference to be drawn 1s that in doing this the respondent
and Davis pushed the shed some way towards the rear of the truck
by putting their backs to the truck cabin and pushing the shed
with their legs. Thereafter they manoeuvred the shed furvher
to the rear by pushing and pulling and swivelling. The evidence
as to the final moments where he describes his "copping" the
weight 1s set oul above.
We point to the following findings of the learned trial
judge. The first 1s "In all the circumstances I think it is
probable that the plaintiff's /respondent's/ version of what
occurred did in fact occur." The second. in relation to the
respondent's evidence, is "Despite this 1 thought that overall
he was endeavouring to tell me the truth." The third finding
is "Irrespective of whether Mr. Conroy gave that specific
direction or not I think that Monad was negligent in loading
a shed of this size on 10 a truck and expecting the plaintiff
/the respondent7 and Mr. Davis to unload at Weetangera without
any assistance or without any equipment." Whilst the question
of negligence is an inference we consider that 1t 1s clear
that the learned trial gudge, having seen the witnesses and having
accepted the respondent's evidence that the large shed was
loaded onto the truck and that tne respondent and Mr. Davis were
required to unload 1t without any cther assistance and without any
equipment, drew the correct inference. A&1s0 zn our opinion,
the proper inference to be drawn from the facts is that
the respondent's injury was caused by the appellant's
breach of its duty to provide a reasonably safe method of
unloading the shed,
It is said that the respondent should have avoided taking
any of the weight when the shed tilted. But the situation would
appear to be that the control of the shed to get it to
the balance point and then to tilt, inevitably involved
easing or attempting to ease the weight of the shed so that it
would swivel and ultimately tilt and that when the shed did tilt
it did so suddenly and the respondent was caught holding it and
did not let go quickly enough. That such a thing would happen
to a boy of nineteen struggling to manoeuvre such a heavy,
awkward shed and no doubt feeling the necessity to steady the
fall of the shed a little at least, so that it would not be
damaged, is not surprising, rather the reverse. And it was in
requiring him to do this without vroviding him with eppropriate
equipment, manpower, supervision or adequate anstructions that
Was the appellant's negligence. It should be noted that
despite the disparity in ages the respondent was regarded by
all concerned as the employee in charge of the enterprise. Davis was
aged 52 years, To send the respondent to unload such a heavy and avke
ward shed with the assistance only of Davis and without appropriate
supervision or adequate instruction was in the words of Dixon C.J.
and Kitto J. "the sort of thing you would think might well arouse
some degree of apprehension in any syectator of the operation,
to say nothing of an experienced employer. " See Hamilton v.
Nurcof CWA. )Pty. "Lita - (4956) 96 C.L.R. 18 at pps. 25-26.
The respondent and Mr. Davis were required to carry out
@ potentially dangerous task 1n a way contrary to the
established practice of dismantling large sheds before
removal. The duty of an employer was discussed by Mason J.
(with whom Barwick C.J., and Gibbs and Aickin JJ. agreed) in
Raimondo v. The State of South Australia (1979) 23 A.L.R. 513
at p.517:-
wes are
emt ae
"The duty of the respondent as an employer was to
take reasonable care for the safety of its workmen
or, as it was expressed by Dixon C.J. and Kitto J.
in Hamilton v. Nuroof (W.A4.) Pty. Ltd. (1956) 96
C.L.R. Té at p. 25 , 'to take reasonable care to
avoid exposing the employees to umneccssary risks
of injury'. In the performance of this duty .2t was
the responsibility of the respondent to ensure that
all reasonable steps were taken to provide 2 reasonably
safe system of working. In general iv is for an
employer to devise and instruct his servants to
follow a system of work which will obviate une»smected
and unusual dangers in the undertaking in which they
are engaged. This responsibility is not confined
to unexpected and unusual dangers; in appropricte
cases it extends to dangers which are obvious both
to him and to his workmen, as the decision in
Hamilton v. Nuroof (W.A.) Pty. Ltd. itself
demonstrates — see esp. op oat, 33-34,"
With respect to the appellant's contention that the
respondent was guilty of contributory negligence the Court 1s
satisfied,for reasons which are substantially similar to the
reasons for the conclusion stated above,thet on the evidence no
anference of contributory negligence should be drayn against
the respondent. Finding that the: respondent had not been shown
the proper way to move the larger kind of shed, and that he
adopted the method appropriate for the smaller kind, the Court
thinks that this was not unreasonable in the circumstances
of urgency and the means available to the respondent. It
was contended that the shed was so obviously heavier than a
shed of the smalier kind, that the sensible procedure for the
respondent and Mr, Davis would have been to keep pushing and
swivelling the shed until it fell off the tray of the truck,
without attempting to control it as it fell. Such an argument
ignores the natural tendency of an employee to endeavour to
preserve property from damage, especially the proverty of his
et ee en
employer. The appellant sought to establish that the
evidence showed that the respondent hed wilfully and unreesombly
sought to support the weight of the large shed. We do not
consider that this is a correct interpretation of the
respondent's evidence, What the respondent said is that he
"copped the weight" in the sense that quite suddenly he
"eot all the we1ght", He did not say that he deliberately
sought to bear the weight of the shed himself.
The respondent was left by the appellant really to
use his own discretion in unloading the shed, Necessarily it
had to be pushed, pulled and swivelied and its weight eased
slightly to get it to the point of balance and beyond, It
was so big and awkward that it would not have been easy to
judge the precise point of balance and the probability that
it would tilt suddenly and catch the respondent when he was
pulling or pushing or swivelling or easing so that he would
momentarily take the weight was very real. The fact that in
their inexperience the respondent and Davis were nushing,
pulling and swivelling in an unco~ordinated mainer added to the
possibility of the sudden tilt. The possibility of the
respondent even sub-consciously thinking it desirable to
steady the fall of the shed to save it from damage, misjudging
what wes possible or safe to do was a natural incident in such
an exercise,
In relation to the contention that this Court should find
that the respondent was guilty of contributory negligence
we think that in the circumstances of this case passages in
the gudgment of the Court of Appeal in Gallaghor v. Dornan,
cee ames Grea ame
Long & Co. Ltd. /1947/ 2 All. ER 38 at p.42 are of assistance.
They read:-
u There remains to be considered the question
whether the plaintiff, by his own negligence, caused or
contributed to the accident. So far as can be gathered
from the evidence, the duty, so far as the crane was
concerned, owed by the nlaintiff to the defendants,
was to use the best of his skill and knowledge to
estimate the weight of each load and to keep 17
within what he believed to be the safe weight. ...
All that the evidence shows is that the plaintiff
thought they had a load of only 4 tons, and that the
crane toppled over, No deliberate overloading is
established by the evidence, and the onus of showing
this 1s on the defendants, Whether the accident was
due to a mistake of judgment as to the velght of the
lift, or to a mistake as to the cépacity ofthe
crane at this redius, was not cleared up. The highest
it can be put against the plaintiff and Pearce is thet,
by an honest mistake, or inadvertence, they were wrong
an ther estimate of the weight of the 11ft, This, in
our view, would not constatute a breach of the duty
which they owed to their employer. ...
It 1s not every mistake or 1nadvertence that amounts
to contributory negligence. If a man exercising his
skill and knowledge to the best of his ability nakes
a mistake, particularly, as in this case, in estimating
' "Whet would"be 4 safo lift, it does not, in our view,
amount to contributory negligence."
The appellant placed some reliance upon the fact that
the respondent nad been unable to state with precision the
manner in which the accident occurred. However, in a case of
this kind we think that the remarks of Williams
and Taylor JJ. in Eamilton v. Nuroof (W.A.) Pty. Ltd.
(supra) at p.29 are in point. Their Honours state:-
"To the medical practitioner who attended him
following his admission to hosvital he said that he
had 'slipped and it came over his hands and
fore-arms and left side of his face'. No doubl
the accident happened so suddenly and its results
were so serious and painful to the appellant that
at is not surprising that he was, and still is, unable
to say precisely how it happened and it may not be
of great amportence that there has been some
divergence between the accounts given
by him from time to time. It was not, we should
think, incumbent upon him to prove the precise lpanner
in which the accident occurred if the correct inference
from the proved facts 1s that it resulted from
negligence for which the respondentswould be liable."
We would therefore confirm the finding of the learned
judge that the respondent suffered his injuries by reeson of
the negligence of the appellant and that the respondent was
not guilty of contributory negligence.
Yor those reasons the appeal must be dismissed
with costs.
I certify that this and the-e:ghAeen
preceding pares are a true copy,of the
Reast s for Juagment herein of 6LoGonours
Me. Justices Smthes, Hacttban and,
fr ati
"on Time Ay Minna
ad
Associ
Dateai2e Tuby 1979
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