Hamilton v Nuroof (WA) Pty Ltd [1956] HCA 42

3! Appl iaety do v

Set aten | A aia 47 slid 49 ASR 584 SASR 11 pl es

torelig 18 GOs,

Appl/Foll Green v Sotico Bin Ed (2003)

Fhe

Wes 19.

HAMILTON . j ' 5 é 5 ss

NUROOF (W.A.) PROPRIETARY LIMITED

Ledger En shcering

Seiwa 313

{HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA.]

APPELLANT ; PLatwtirr, AND

ReEsPoNDENT. DEFENDANT,

ON APPEAL FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

H.C. or A. Negligence—Employer—System of work—Duty to provide safe system—Repairs to

1956. easy,

Sypnery, April 9;

Aug. 10.

Dixon ©.J.,

Williams,

Fullagar, Kitto and Taylor JJ.

roof—Use of molten bitumen—Placed in buckets—Necessity to raise buckets to higher levels—Lifting done manually—No provision of lifting gear—Likelihood of bitumen spilling—Danger to person lifting—System unsafe—Failure to take reasonable care for employee's safety.

The defendant company was engaged in carrying out repairs, involving the use of molten bitumen, to the roof of a motor generator room on the sixth floor of a city building. The bitumen was heated on the roof of the fifth floor and placed in open buckets which, when two-thirds full, weighed forty pounds. Each bucket was raised by means of a rope to the level of the sixth floor roof and then carried manually up a fixed iron ladder leading from the sixth floor roof to the roof of an iron shed beside the motor generator room and then passed by hand again from the shed roof to a workman on the roof of the motor generator room. 'The roof of the motor generator room was about five feet eight inches higher than the shed roof. by the defendant company, was stationed on the shed roof lifting the buckets of molten bitumen from that roof to a workman positioned on the motor generator roof, who took the centre of the handle and lifted the bucket to

The plaintiff, a labourer employed

the roof where he stood. The plaintiff performed this operation on two occasions without incident, but on the third occasion as he stood on the shed roof with one such bucket in-his hands and raised in front of him the bitumen spilt over the side of his face, his hands and forearms inflicting severe injuries.