High Court of Australia
Zs vy y SF CO IN THE HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA.
THE .SYDNEY..COUNTY.. COUNCIL
.. HUGHES,
REASONS FOR JUDGMENT.
Judgment delivered at ..8..¥..D.NBX.
HL J. Green, Gort, Print, Melb. on... THURS DAY»... 5th. DEGEMBER,. 19K0..
cans
APPEAL DISMISSED WITH COSTS.
THE BYBNEY COUNTY COUNCIL -¥- HUGHES.
JUDGMENT. RIGH, A.C.J., MoTTERNAN AND IAMS, JJ.
On the 29th October, 1937, C.H.Hughes was in the employ- ment of certain contractors who were erecting a building for Danger Gedye & Co. Ltd. on land situated between Harris Street and Bulwarra Lane, Ultimo. On that date a crane on which he was working came into contact with some live overhead electric wires belonging to the appellant, the Sydney County Council, and he was electrocuted and died,
His widow on behalf of herself and their two children sued the appellant for compensation under the New South Wales Compensation to Relatives Act, 1897-1928, The jury returned a verdiet for £3509-10-0d but om appeal. the Full Court of New South Wales ordered a new trial. On the second trial the jury returned a verdict for £2,759-3-0d, The appellant appealed to the State Full Court, which dismissed the motion. This Court is now asked to enter a verdict for the defendant. or alternatively to order a third trial. Before a third trial is ordered the Court must be satisfied the second trial took a course clearly prejudicial to the appellant and so erroneous that. the verdict cannot justly be allowed to stand: see Australian Brokerage Ltd. -v- Australian and New Zealand Banking Corporation Ltd.
(52 C.L.R. 430 at 442).
The material facts are shortly as follows: the appellant. is a statutory body which was incorporated by the Gas and Electricity Act, 1935-1936, to acquire the electricity undérteking previously carried on by the Municipal Council of Sydney. IN October, 1957, R.C.Coleman was its district foreman in the area where the building was being erected, According to his evidence he went to the job on October 22nd in connection with the erection of a bracket in lieu of an existing pole. He saw the general fordéman, who was in charge of ime"S5, named Jones, but had no re~ collection of having seen one Little until the Coroner's inquest. which was held after the accident. Noticing that the street
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