Koop v Bebb [1951] HCA 77

High Court of Australia Dixon, McTiernan, Williams, Fullagar and Kitto JJ. Koop v Bebb [1951] HCA 77

ORDER Appeal allowed with costs. Order of the Supreme Court dated 11th May 1951 discharged. In lieu thereof declare that the allegations contained in pars. 1 to 6 inclusive of the statement of claim disclose a cause of action by the plaintiffs against the defendant and that the costs of the argument of the points of law which the order of the Supreme Court dated 15th March 1951 directed to be set down to be argued be paid by the defendant (the respondent in this Court).

Cur. adv. vult.

The following written judgments were delivered:—

Dec. 20 Dixon, Williams, Fullagar and Kitto JJ.

The appellants in this case are the plaintiffs in an action in the Supreme Court of Victoria, in which two claims for damages against the respondent (the defendant) are made. The first is a claim by both plaintiffs for damages in respect of the death of their father, and the second is a claim by the male plaintiff alone for damages in respect of personal injuries sustained by him. By their statement of claim the plaintiffs allege that the defendant was guilty of negligence while driving a motor truck, in which the father was a passenger, at the intersection of the Tocumwal-Barooga Road and the Mulwala Road, and that by reason of the defendant's negligence the truck was overturned, with the result that the father received injuries of which he died in a hospital in Victoria. The plaintiffs allege that there is no executor or administrator of the estate of their father, that they were dependent upon their father for their support, and that by reason of his death they have been wholly deprived of support and have thereby suffered damage. The statement of claim also alleges that the male plaintiff was a passenger in the motor truck, and that as a result of the accident be sustained physical injuries and suffered damage.