AUSTRALIAN IRON & STEEL LIMITED V. DONAGHUE

ORIGINAL

IN THE HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA

ORIGINAL

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT

Judgment delivered at__Sydney

WM, Houston, Gort. Print, Melb,

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AUSTRALIAN IRON & STEEL LIMITED

DONAGHUE

JUDGMENT OF THE COURT

DELIVERED BY DIXON C.J.

CORAM: DIXON C.J. McTIERNAN J. Kirto J. MENZIES J.

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AUSTRALIAN IRON & STEEL LIMITED ve

DONAGHUE

This is an appeal against a judgment of the Full Court of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. By the judgment an appeal against the verdict of a jury was dismissed as to liability and a cross-appeal was allowed as to the quantum of damages. We are not here concerned with the cross-appeal or the quantum of damages; we are concerned wholly with the question of liability.

The action was one of personal injuries brought by an employee against the Australian Iron & Steel Limited. The personal injuries were suffered in an accident which took place on 30th December 1956. The accident occurred while the employee, who is the plaintiff respondent, was operating a very heavy machine, the purpose of which was to secure the cutting, into long lengths and into sizes, of steel plate which is fed into the machine from rolled cylinders or coils, as they seem to have been called in the factory, of reasonably thin steel.

The machine exhibited difficulties and the accident occurred while the plaintiff respondent was attempting to set them right. To explain the accident it is necessary to say a little about the operation. The plaintiff's normal position was in front of a control table. The machine was in part operated by electrical power and in part by hydraulic power.

So far as it was operated by hydraulic power the control table was furnished with levers which the plaintiff would operate.

In so far as it was operated by electrical power the control table was furnished with buttons which he would operate. Very large coils of steel-were delivered by a crane on to a set of rollers which brought them in front of the operating part of