HARRIS V. STROUD

IN THE HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA

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HARRIS

STROUD

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REASONS FOR JUDGMENT

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HARRIS v. STROUD

JUDGMENT McTIEBRNAN J.

BARRIS v. STROUD

In this action the plaintiff sues the defendant to recover damages for personal injury. The amount claimed 'is £40,000. The cause of action sued upon is negligence.

The action is within the original jurisdiction of this Court because the plaintiff and the defendant are residents of different States.

The accident with which the case is concerned occurred at Cairns on Sunday, 22nd July 1956, At 7.25 p.m. a motor car which the defendant was driving overtook the plaintiff : and another lady, Miss Stephens, while they were walking on Minnie Street towards Sheridan Street. The motor car knocked the plaintiff on to the road and she thereby susteined an extremely serious injury to her brain. Miss Stephens was walking on the plaintiff's left side, their little fingers linked, as Miss Stephens said in evidence. The motor car grazed Miss Stephens' right arm but she was not otherwise injured.

The estimated speed of the motor vehicle was 25 miles an hour. The only passenger in the motor car was Miss Cole, to whom the defendant was engaged. They married since the accident and this lady was a witness, The motor vehicle was proceeding on its correct side of Minnie Street, The plaintiff was struck by the near front end of the motor vehicle, It was a 1948 Vauxhall sedan. She was thrown forward, her heed striking the road. There was a bitumen strip in the middle of Minnie street, The width of the strip was sixteen feet. There was a foot of gravel at the sides of the bitumen, The plaintiff's head struck the road at a spot about two feet from the edges of the bitumen. The spot was marked by a pool of blood. Her feet were on the grass growing at the side of the gravel. She was unconscious and