STATE RAIL AUTHORITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES v BLANCHARD [1989] NSWCA 195

STATE RAIL AUTHORITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES v BLANCHARD SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COURT OF APPEAL

Hope AP, PRIESTLEY and CLARKE JJA 14 July 1989, 20 July 1989

[1989] NSWCA 195

Appeal — Causation — Negligence — Damages — Economic loss — No question of principle.

Clarke J In 1980 the respondent was employed as a fettler by the State Rail Authority of New South Wales, the appellant. He lived on a farm at Harden and worked as part of a gang based at Binalong. On 14 March of that year he sustained injury when a stack of sleepers collapses on his back and leg during the course of his employment. He sued the appellant claiming damages in respect of those injuries claiming that they had resulted from negligence on the appellant's part. His case was heard by Campbell J who on 29 June 1988 delivered his reasons which led to the entry of judgment in favour of the respondent in the sum of $461,537.00.

The appellant filed a notice of appeal in which it challenged a great number of his Honour's conclusions. At the hearing of the appeal most of the grounds set out in the notice of appeal were withdrawn and the court has been concerned to consider only whether his Honour erred in directing the entry of judgment in favour of the respondent and whether the assessment of damages in respect of the respondent's claim for impaired earning capacity was vitiated by error.

It is convenient to examine the liability question first. For some time prior to sustaining his injury the respondent had been working with other members of his gang unloading sleepers from open railway carriages on the main southern line near Binalong. The manner in which the unloading was carried out and which was under the control of Mr Menz, was as follow - sleepers were stacked in an open railway truck transversely across the truck one on top of the other. Each sleeper was approximately eight feet long, eight inches wide and four or five inches deep and weighed eighty to ninety pounds. Each stack comprised seven sleepers. The centre door of the truck was opened and sleepers were discharged from the truck through that opening. On occasions the sleepers were discharged while the train wa, moving slowly and on others when it was stationery. The respondent was working in one truck with another member of the gang, Mr Melross. They would, using sleeper hooks, initially remove the sleepers from the stacks situated in the centre of the wagon. When all the sleepers in those stacks had been discharged the two men angled the remaining stacks so that the sleepers were pointed towards the open doorway. When the time came to throw the sleeper from the truck a fettler would, with the assistance of his sleeper hook, push the sleeper out of the side of the truck.