HUDSON V. WALSH AND ANOTHER

e.n08/a1

J.-S Govrles, Gort, Print, Meth

IN THE HIGH COURT OF AUSYRALIA

WALSH AND ANOTHER

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT ai[-[-

Judgment delivered at... BRISBANE

on. WEDNESDAY, .20TH SEPTEMBER 1961

Judgment for the plaintiff for £10,551. 8 6 with costs.

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In this action the plaintiff, who is a resident of New South Wales, claims damages from the defendants in respect of personal injuries which he sustained on the 3rd January last. The first-named defendant is a resident of Queensland and the second-named defendant a resident of Victoria,

It appears from the evidence that the plaintiff sustained his injuries in Queensland whilst holidaying there with his wife and family. They had come to Queensland ina panel van with a hired caravan attached and on the day of the accident they travelled north along the Bruce highway. Just short of Caboolture, however, the plaintiff turned off the highway and made a diversion. At a later stage, when he regained the highway, he turned to the left. This set his course in a southerly direction whereas, in fact, he had intended to continue his course to the north. But before he had travelled very far he recognized some landmarks which he had passed before turning off the highway. One of these was a narrow bridge and after crossing it he pulled to the side of the road and stopped. At this point the bitumen roadway is about twenty or twenty-one feet wide and on either side there were earth shoulders. That on the eastern side was somewhere between nine and eleven feet wide and was bounded by a low bank, From a position in the vicinity of the southern end of the bridge the road rose to the crest of a hill approximately one hundred and sixty yards to the south. The spot where the van and caravan came to rest was a little closer to the crest of the hill than to the southern end of the bridge. In the