DIAN LEE v STATE RAIL AUTHORITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES [1992] NSWCA 131

DIAN LEE y STATE RAIL AUTHORITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES

SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COURT OF APPEAL

MAHONEY, MEAGHER and CRIPPS JJA 22 October 1992, 14 December 1992

[1992] NSWCA 131

FACTS: Appellant works as train carriage cleaner and is injured. She claims that respondent was negligent in that it failed to warn her to wear safe footwear. Trial judge finds for respondent. On appeal, claiming she had proved footwear was unsafe and challenging the trial judge's exclusion of certain evidence. HELD:(per curiam) (i) The appellant proved neither that the footwear caused the accident nor that the accident would have been avoided had other footwear been worn instead. (ii) It is impossible to see that, even if all the trial judge's disputed rulings on evidence had been incorrect, the result would have been any different.

Mahoney JA I agree with the judgment of Meagher JA and with the orders proposed.

Meagher JA The plaintiff appellant, Miss Dian Lee, was in June 1981 working on a nightshift job for the respondent as a carriage cleaner. It was her duty to clean the exterior of the train and then the interior. The washing mixture was supplied by the defendant, the plaintiff applied it to whatever surface needed cleaning, and then one of the plaintiff's co-workers hosed that surface down. On the night in question the plaintiff and her co-worker were working from Platform No 10 at Punchbowl Car Shed. There was a gap of about 30 centimetres between the platform and the carriage which the plaintiff was cleaning, and the floor of the carriage was about four inches above the platform.

On the evening in question the plaintiff fell between the platform and the train and suffered great injury. Neither the fall nor the injury is in issue. Exactly how the fall occurred is not quite clear. The version which the plaintiff gave in oral evidence is as follows: