COMMONWEALTH v GORDON [1995] NSWCA 89

COMMONWEALTH v GORDON

SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES — COURT OF APPEAL

GLEESON CJ, MEAGHER and COLE JJA 11 August 1995

[1995] NSWCA 89

Gleeson CJ. The respondent plaintiffs carry on a pastoral business. In 1991 they owned a stud bull of the Maine-Anjou breed, named Kanga Vigour. The evidence established that this was a bull of high quality, the best of its breed in Australia. In 1991 it was rising three years. The evidence also established that its quality was such that the respondents would not have been able to replace it by a bull of equal or superior quality. The bull's primary purpose in life was to service Maine-Anjou cattle in the respondents Castlemaine stud. In addition there was a significant potential for sale of the bulls semen to third parties.

On 27 August 1991 as a consequence of the negligence of persons for whose conduct the appellant was responsible the bull was killed.

The respondents sued the appellants for damages for negligence. Liability and damages were contested. The case came for trial before Badgery-Parker J sitting without a jury in Orange in October 1994. The issue of liability was resolved in favour of the respondents. There is no appeal against his Honour's finding on that issue. His Honour assessed damages in the amount of $300,150. That assessment of damages is the subject of the present appeal.

It should be said at the outset that a reading of the record of the trial, and of the learned judge's reasons for judgment, strongly suggests that both evidence and argument on the issue of quantum of damages were dealt with by the parties in a rather perfunctory fashion. To a substantial extent the proper resolution of this appeal is related to the manner in which the trial was conducted. The case is not a reliable guide to valuation questions generally, or to the valuation of stud bulls in particular, because of that aspect of the matter.