AUSTRALIAN TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION v JAMES ANTONI [1991] NSWCA 12

AUSTRALIAN TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION v JAMES ANTONI

SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COURT OF APPEAL

PRIESTLEY, CLARKE and HANDLEY JJA 22 May 1991, 19 June 1991 [1991] NSWCA 12

NEGLIGENCE — CONTRIBUTORY NEGLIGENCE — DAMAGES — CREDIBILITY OF PLAINTIFF — IMPAIRMENT OF EARNING CAPACITY — GENERAL DAMAGES — FRAUD — INTEREST — NO QUESTION OF PRINCIPLE

Priestley JA I agree with Clarke JA.

Clarke JA The respondent was injured on 4 July 1984 when he slipped on a smallbundle of wire in the vicinity of the main frame in the Haymarket Exchange premises of the appellant who was then his employer. He claimed that those injuries resulted from negligence on the part of his employer and he sued to recover damages in respect of those injuries. The trial was conducted by Sully J who concluded that the appellant had been negligent, that the respondent had himself been negligent, that the respondent's damages should be reduced by 25 per cent on account of his contributory negligence and who directed entry of judgment for the respondent in the sum of $141,004.00. The appellant has appealed from this judgment challenging the apportionment of contributory negligence and the award of damages.

The respondent was employed as an assistant technician at the time he sustained his injury. He was familiar with, and had constantly worked at, the main frame. This was a metal structure about 20 to 30 metres in length at which technicians were required to connect and disconnect telephone extension wires integral to its operation. Such operations required them to strip wires known as jumper wires. Because the technicians were required to work much of the time from ladders they simply dropped discarded or waste wires onto the floor and made no attempt to place them into an appropriate receptacle. Accordingly, it was by no means unusual to find discarded bundles, both large and small, on the floor.