Transfield Pty Ltd v Fallavolita [1984] HCA 66

High Court of Australia Mason, Wilson, Brennan, Deane and Dawson JJ. Transfield Pty Ltd v Fallavolita [1984] HCA 66

ORDER Appeal dismissed with costs.

Cur. adv. vult.

The following written judgments were delivered:—

Oct. 25 Mason, Brennan, Deane and Dawson JJ.

This appeal from a decision of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of New South Wales arises out of an action, framed alternatively in negligence and for breach of statutory duty, commenced by the respondent for damages for injuries he sustained during the course of his employment by the appellant. The sole question before this Court, as before the Court of Appeal, is whether the appellant was in breach of reg. 73(3) of the Construction Safety Regulations 1950 made under the Construction Safety Act 1912 N.S.W.. That regulations required the appellant to "provide means by fencing or otherwise for securing the safety of any person working at a place from which he would be liable to fall a distance of more than 1.8 m".

The respondent's injuries were sustained in March 1979 when he fell some 4 metres from a horizontal steel beam, known as an intermediate beam, forming part of the ground floor structure of a building under construction at the Eraring Power Station in New South Wales on to the concrete floor of a basement below. There was nothing to secure the safety of any person working on the beam. At the time of his fall the respondent was employed by the appellant as a leading-hand boilermaker welder, his duties being to see that welders were kept busy and to lend them assistance as necessary, as for example by supplying electrodes and moving leads. The fall occurred as he was walking along the beam about a metre behind another welder, Boyd, who was engaged in welding operations at the time. The precise reason for the respondent's being there was not established. The serious nature of his injuries prevented him from giving evidence.