Stevens v Brodribb Sawmilling Co Pty Ltd [1986] HCA 1

High Court of Australia Mason, Wilson, Brennan, Deane and Dawson JJ. Stevens v Brodribb Sawmilling Co Pty Ltd [1986] HCA 1

ORDER Appeals dismissed with costs.

Cur. adv. vult.

The following written judgments were delivered:—

1986, Feb. 13 Mason J.

These appeals, which are brought from a decision of the Full Court of the Supreme Court of Victoria, arise out of an action for damages for personal injuries commenced in the Supreme Court by the appellant Roy Albert Stevens against the appellant Stanley Charles Gray and the respondent Brodribb Sawmilling Company Pty. Ltd. ("Brodribb"). They raise significant issues concerning the liability of an employer to a person engaged to perform a function forming part of the employer's business operations for injuries caused through the carelessness of another.

Brodribb is the owner of a large hardwood sawmill at Orbost in eastern Victoria for which it conducts extensive logging operations on the nearby Errinundra Plateau under licences from the Forests Commission of Victoria ("the Commission"). The licences, which are issued in accordance with the provisions of the Forests Act 1958 Vict., grant exclusive rights to remove timber from designated areas of forest, subject to conditions which include compliance with certain directions given by officers of the Commission. It has not been suggested, however, that officers of the Commission are in any way responsible for ensuring the safety of persons engaged in logging operations.

In order to facilitate its logging operations, Brodribb's practice over the years has been to engage persons whose functions fall within three categories, namely, felling, snigging and truck driving, and to allocate them to specified parts of its logging areas known as "compartments". It is the function of a feller to fell trees and of a snigger to push or pull logs to a loading ramp constructed by him by means of a tractor or bulldozer and to load them on to trucks for delivery to the sawmill by the truck driver. The logging operations are overseen by a "bush boss" who is an employee of Brodribb.