Australian Iron & Steel Pty Ltd v Luna [1969] HCA 66

High Court of Australia Barwick C.J. Kitto, Menzies, Windeyer and Owen JJ. Australian Iron & Steel Pty Ltd v Luna [1969] HCA 66

ORDER Appeal allowed with costs. Order of the Supreme Court of New South Wales set aside and in lieu thereof order that the appeal to that Court be dismissed with costs.

Cur. adv. vult.

The following written judgments were delivered:—

Dec. 22 Barwick C.J.

The appellant appeals by special leave against a judgment of the Supreme Court of New South Wales (Court of Appeal Division), by which a new trial was ordered of the third count of a declaration in an action brought by the respondent against the appellant. The respondent sued on three counts, the first for negligence in not having adequately lit the place in which the respondent worked for the appellant: the second, for breach of a statutory duty adequately to light the place at which the respondent worked and the third, for breach of a statutory duty to provide and maintain safe means of access to the place at which the respondent was to work, it being alleged that the access was unsafe for lack of adequate lighting.

The first two counts went to the jury under direction to which no objection is taken. The jury returned a verdict for the defendant on each of these counts. The trial judge directed a verdict for the defendant on the third count on the ground that there was no material on which the jury could find that at the time of the receipt of the injury of which he complained the respondent was gaining access to a place at which he was to work within the meaning of s. 40 of the Factories, Shops and Industries Act, 1962 of the State of New South Wales (the Act). The Supreme Court's decision set aside this verdict and, as I have said, ordered a new trial of the issues arising under this count.