IN THE HIGH COURT: OF AUSTRALIA COGGIN EASONS FOR JUDGMENT. - Oral Judgment delivered at. Sy COGGIN Vv. STEPHENS, BY HeR NEXT FRIEND VicTO? PAUL O'BRIEN ORDER The order granting special leave to appeal will be rescinded. Having regard to the undertakings given when special leave was granted, the appellant will pay the respondent's costs of that application and of the appeal. COGGIN STEPHENS, BY HER NEXT FRIEND ViCTOR PAUL O'BRIEN ! JUDGMENT BARWICK C.J. (ORAL) coeGIN STEPHENS, -BY HER NEXT FRIEND VICTOR PAUL O'BRIEN We have had a discussion of the pleadings in this matter, during which we have explored various possible courses of action. The discussion has produced in my mind the conviction that as the pleadings now stand, this Court could not in an appeal from a decision of the Court of Appeal, give a decision within the limits of that appeal, which would be definitive of the rights of the parties. The Court of Appeal has taken from the pleadings an admitted state of facts which, for my part, with due respect, I am unable with, certainty to extract from the pleadings. The particular act on which the plaintiff founds its assertion of negligence against the second defendant does not appear to my mind either in the declaration or in those pleas of the defendant which are subject to the demurrer. Until that act can certainly be seen the question of the relationship of that act either to s. 22(1) or to s. 48 of the Bushfires Act cannot, in my opinion, be decided. In the circumstances, therefore, I think the preferable course is, for the reasons I have indicated, to : rescind the special leave to appeal and that course I propose. . TERENCE F. COGGIN ve RHONDA STEPHENS by her next friend - VICTOR PAUL O'BRIEN _ TUDGMENT. McTIERNAN J. (ORAL) TERENCE F. COGGIN ve RHONDA STEPHENS by her next friend VICTOR PAUL O'BRIEN I agree. COGGIN Ve RHONDA STEPHENS BY HER FRIEND VICTOR PAUL O'BRIEN JUDGMENT: . MENZIES J. 0! COGGIN Ve , RHONDA STEPHENS BY HER FRIEND VICTOR PAUL O'BRIEN I agree. TERENCE F. COGGIN Vv. RHONDA STEPHENS by her next friend VICTOR PAUL O'BRIEN JUDGMENT : ; OWEN J. (ORAL) TERENCE F. COGGIN RHONDA STEPHENS by her next friend VICTOR PAUL O'BRIEN I agree. ' ~ TERENCE F. COGGIN RHONDA. STEPHENS by her next friend "VICTOR PAUL O'BRIEN JUDGMENT GIBBS Js: (ORAL ) . TERENCE F. COGGIN ve RHONDA STEPHENS by her next friend VICTOR PAUL O'BRIEN I agree.