TULLY V. BEACH AND OTHERS

wa

¥ IN THE HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT

JUDGMENT

CORAL)

BEACH AND OTHERS

JUDGMENT OF THE COURT DELIVERED BY DIXON C.J.

CORAM: DIXON C.J. McTIERNAN J.

TAYLOR J.

B OTHERS

This is an appeal from a judgment of Mr. Justice Matthews by which he entered judgment for the defendant in an action for damages for personal injuries due to negligence in a road accident.

The facts are short, and the appeal which has been brought by the plaintiff depends not so much on a rejection of the findings of the judge as to what actually happened but upon the contention that, having regard to what appears to have happened, he was bound to find that the accident was due to negligence.

The plaintiff was riding as a passenger beside her husband in a car as he drove it along the Bruce Highway. He was driving north, and he was near Caboolture. The body of the traffic was coming in the opposite direction. In front of him was a car driven by a man named Birt, who is not a party to these

proceedings. Behind him was a car driven by Beach, who is the

defendant in the action. He was insured by the Standard Insurance Company, and that insurer has been joined at its own election as an additional defendant. The husband of the plain- tiff has been brought in by the defendant as third party.

There were three cars in succession - Birt's first, then Tully's, then Beach's - and the question upon which we think the case must be decided is simply whether Mr. Justice Matthews was entitled to acquit Beach of negligence.

Beach's car ran into the rear of Tully's car, and it is said that the plaintiff's injuries were caused by the severity of the blow to the car, the reaction upon her frame and

the shock which was thus inflicted. Tully's car had pulled up

All this was caused because out of the oncoming traffic from the opposite direction a car containing some young men was driven at very high speed. It veered out from the line of traffic, which led Birt to veer to his left and drop his speed from what he says was 30 miles an hour to what he says was 15 miles an hour. The attention of Tully, so it was said, was likewise attracted. He veered slightly to his right to see better, then to his left, and hit Birt; not, however, a very severe collision.