High Court of Australia
ORIGINAL ,, (a
IN THE HIGH COURT OF AUSTRAI
REASONS FOR JUDGMENT.
Delivered at,
40358 A. H. Perriver, Active Govr. Prixt.
10th DECEMBER, 1945.
LATHAM Qed TuDQMENT:
f In this case the plaintiff, the widow of a man who was injured and died as a result of the injury, sued under the Compensation to Relatives Act. The plaintiff depended in effeat upon the evidence of the defendant himself, the driver of the motor car alleged to have caused the injury. There had been a coronial enguiry ani the defendant had been interviewed by a constable. The evidence for the Plaintiff in substance consisted of the answers made by the defendant at the coronial enquiry and of statements made by him to the Police Constable. There was also medical evidence with respect to the nature of the injuries of the deceased and the probable causation of those injuries.
The defendant was driving a cer on a dark rainy night along a road, as to the presence of other traffic on which there is no evidence, His Statements were to the effect that he was presented with a sudden emergency, had to act, may have gone wrong, but did his best. The jury found for the plaintiff. upon appeal the Full Court set aside the verdict of the jury and entered judgment for the defendant upon the ground that there was no evidence that any negligence of the defendant caused the accident. The jury was entitled to accept part of the evidence of the defendant and to reject other part, and it was within the province of the jury to accept an admission and rejeot an excuse; but the jury was not entitled to . construct an explanation of the occurrence which there was no evidence to .support.
The first question is whether there was evidence of negligence on the part of the defendant. 'The evidence is he saw a dark object in the road, there *was a depression in the road and it was foggy. The object was not person standing or walking but was something lying on the road. His hedd lights disclosed the object when he was 20 feet away. He was confronted with an unexpected emergency so that he had to make up his mind very suddenly as to : what he should do. Considering the matter after the event. appear that he might have stopped the car and avoided the, 4 eg
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