Albion Insurance Co Ltd v Government Insurance Office (NSW) [1969] HCA 55

High Court of Australia Barwick C.J. McTiernan, Kitto, Menzies and Windeyer JJ. Albion Insurance Co Ltd v Government Insurance Office (NSW) [1969] HCA 55

ORDER Appeal allowed with costs. Order of the Supreme Court of New South Wales (Street J.) set aside. In lieu thereof order that the respondent pay to the appellant (1) $8071.92, one half of the sum of $16,143.84, being the sum paid by the appellant to the insured by way of indemnity, and (2) the costs in the Supreme Court.

Cur. adv. vult.

The following written judgments were delivered:—

Oct. 31 Barwick C.J., McTiernan and Menzies JJ.

This is an appeal from an order made by Street J. The plaintiff appellant had indemnified A. & V. Bence Pty. Ltd., under an employers' indemnity policy against a verdict and costs totalling $16,143.84 which the company became liable to pay to an employee for damages for negligence causing bodily injury. His Honour held that the plaintiff was not entitled to contribution from the defendant respondent, the Government Insurance Office of New South Wales, which had insured the aforesaid company under a third party policy effected under the Motor Vehicles (Third Party Insurance) Act and Regulations against liability in respect of a motor vehicle, the use of which gave rise to the bodily injury of its employee. In deciding as he did, his Honour simply followed an earlier decision of Myers J. in Government Insurance Office of New South Wales v. Royal Exchange Assurance of London [1] . It is the correctness of this latter decision that now falls to be determined upon this appeal from the order made in the instant case.

1. (1965) 82 W.N. (Pt 1) (N.S.W.) 468.

It is common ground that the verdict and costs paid by the plaintiff would have been payable by the defendant had the company claimed against the latter rather than the former. In other words, each policy indemnified A. & V. Bence Pty. Ltd. against liability for the sum of $16,143.84 damages arising from the company's negligence to an employee.