Liosatos v Australian National Line [1964] HCA 43

High Court of Australia Barwick C.J. McTiernan, Kitto, Taylor and Menzies JJ. Liosatos v Australian National Line [1964] HCA 43

ORDER Appeal allowed with costs. Order of Supreme Court set aside and in lieu thereof order that appeal from Local Court be allowed with costs and that judgment be entered for the plaintiff for £240 2s. 5d. with costs.

Cur. adv. vult.

The following written judgments were delivered:—

July 30 Barwick C.J.

The plaintiff, a seaman, sued the defendant in the Local Court of Adelaide for wages and maintenance totalling £455 10s. 0d. He claimed the wages to be due to him by the combined effect of s. 132 of the Navigation Act 1912-1958 Cth and the clause of his articles fixing his rate of remuneration as a seaman on the s.s. Lake Torrens, and the maintenance by reason of the terms of s. 127 of the Navigation Act.

The plaintiff, whose home port was Adelaide, was left on shore at Port Melbourne because of an illness which incapacitated him from following his duty on the ship. It was this circumstance which he claimed entitled him to the wages and the maintenance for which he sued. The illness, however, was not contracted by him during the currency of the articles under which he was serving when left on shore. For this reason the Local Court judge dismissed his claim for wages, giving him judgment only for the amount found to be due to him for maintenance under s. 127 of the Navigation Act, as to which no question arises in this appeal.

The judge was of the opinion that s. 132 of the Navigation Act should be given the same meaning as this Court in the case of Burns Philp and Co. Ltd. v. Myrhe [1] gave articles in substantially the same terms as the statute, and that no variation in the terms of the statute subsequent to that decision required any different construction.