WATTS v SINGH WATTS v GREWAL SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COURT OF APPEAL SAMUELS, MAHONEY and PRIESTLEY JJA 7 September 1989, 7 September 1989 [1989] NSWCA 224 NEGLIGENCE — motor vehicle accident — no question of principle. Samuels JA These appeals are the consequences of a motor vehicle accident which took placeon the Pacific Highway near Woolgoolga at about 4 o'clock in the morning. Campbell J, the learned trial judge, depended for a solution of the problem before him on the following material. First, the account of the accident given by one of the drivers, because the other driver remembered nothing of what occurred, and his passenger was killed; while the passenger of the driver, Mr Grewal, who could recollect, was able to offer very little assistance in describing what he had observed. Next, the damage to the motor vehicles and the position in which they ended up. Thirdly, certain marks on the roadway made by portions of one of the motor vehicles, and by one of its tyres. Finally, an expert opinion expressed by an experienced police officer, which the learned trial judge admitted with some reluctance, and ultimately rejected. The judgment, with which I may say at once I respectfully agree, is clear, careful and well constructed, and no purpose would he served by my recapitulating the facts, and then merely expressing my conclusion, which is that it exhibits no basis for any intervention by this Court. I can shortly put my view in this way. There were two, let us say, possible hypotheses, each depending upon a finding as to which of the two vehicles crossed the double centre line. In order to present a solution to that problem, the fact finder could consider the initial contact damage of the vehicles which was agreed, the marks, and above all, the account given of what was said to have happened. The learned judge accepted Mr Grewal as a witness of truth, despite the fact that he was clearly under the influence of alcohol at the time of the collision; but so far as that goes, his passenger gave evidence that his driving did not appear to be abnormal, and so far as one can tell, that evidence was not the subject of any direct challenge. It seems to me that once the learned judge made an assessment of in effect the only witness, which he did, and granted that in other respects the competing hypotheses were of equal plausibility, it seems to me that there is no ground upon which this Court can properly intervene. For myself, I am inclined to the view that the hypothesis which his Honour ultimately favoured enjoys a somewhat greater degree of persuasion than the other; but I do not know that that conclusion is necessary to sustain the view at which I ultimately arrive. It is simply that there is no defect in the judge's reasoning which would authorise this Court to intervene, and no basis upon which I am prepared to say that his Honour was wrong. 2 UNREPORTED JUDGMENTS I might add that we were invited to arrive at a variety of possible conclusions, based upon our knowledge, or our presumed knowledge, of the operation of physical forces and the like. Although I must concede that suggestions of this kind are sometimes well received by the bench, we are bound to bear in mind West v Government Insurance Office of New South Wales (1981) 148 CLR 62 at 65-6 which tells us that to arrive at conclusions of that kind in the absence of adequate expert evidence is to indulge in conjecture, rather than to adopt the fair course of inference. For those reasons, I accept Campbell J's conclusions as correct, or at least immune from correction, and I would propose that each of the appeals be dismissed with costs. Mahoney JA I Agree. Priestley JA I also agree. Each of the appeals is dismissed with costs. Counsel for First Appellant: BJ Gross QC with CA Levy Counsel for Second Appellant: A Morrison Solicitors for First Appellant: Blessington Judd and Co Solicitors for Second Appellant: HD McLachlan, Chilton and Co Counsel for First Respondent: DJ Higgs, C Hoy Counsel for Second Respondent: PR Grogan Solicitors for Respondent: Lee and James, Coffs Harbour