NEW GUINEA GOLDFIELDS LTD. V. KUHL

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ia IN THE HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA

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REASONS FOR JUDGMENT

Judgment delivered at... SYDNEY...

HL E. Daw,-Gor. Print, Meib. : on__FRIDAY 12TH DECEMBER, 1952.

c.12280/45

NEW GUINEA GOLDFIELDS ITD.

ve

KUEL

Appeal allowed wi

costs. Cross appeal dismissed with costs. Judgment of the Supreme Court of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea discharged. Order that there be a new trial of the action and that the costs of the former trial abide the

order of the Supreme Court hearing and determining the

action upon such new trial.

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Cot

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UHL JUDGMENT : DIXON C.J. WALLIAMS J. FULLAGAR J.

The reasons given by the learned trial judge for his decision in favour of the plaintiff in this case are such that it seems clear that his judgment cannot stand, and the real question which emerges seems to us to be whether this Court should order that judgment be entered for the defendant or should direct a new trial. On the unsatisfactory material before us, it is not possible for this Court to substitute for a finding which was attacked by both parties some finding of

- its own and hold that the death of Kuhl was caused by negligence on the part of the defendant company or any of its servants or agents other than Kuhl.

We know that Kuhl died by electrocution, and we know that the immediate cause of the electrocution was his own voluntary act. He attempted with a mir of pliers or some such tool to cut through an insulated wire which was connected with a source of electric poweri When the metal of the tool reached the metal of the wire inside the insulation, a circuit was completed through the tool and through Kuhl's body to earth, and Kuhl was killed. And that, as Mr. Barwick sdid, is about all that we do kmow about what happened. In these circumstances it is difficult to see how the defendant could be held liable in respect of Kuhl's death unless there were something in the electrical installation or in the general