BUJNOWICZ v STYLES AND CAMPBELL PTY LTD [1996] NSWCA 76

BUJNOWICZ v STYLES AND CAMPBELL PTY LTD SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COURT OF APPEAL

PRIESTLEY, COLE JJA and Simos AJA 18 September 1996, 18 September 1996 [1996] NSWCA 76

NEGLIGENCE — JURY

NEGLIGENCE — alleged failure by respondent company to keep driveway in safe condition — delivery to respondent company's premises — appellant falls in respondent's car park — badly injures his knee.

JURY — jury verdict in favour of respondent — difficulty in knowing on what issue or issues jury not satisfied — appeal — whether judge had misdirected or failed to direct jury — whether court could exercise discretion and set aside jury verdict and order a new trial.

Held: After referring to the constraint upon the appellant caused by the rules related to setting aside a jury verdict, it had not been shown that the judge made a misdirection or failed to give a necessary direction. In any event, the matters complained of were unlikely to have been of substantial significance

in the jury's deliberations. There was nothing in the appeal warranting the court to intervene.

Priestley JA

This is an appeal against a judgment entered in the defendant's favour following a jury verdict in favour of the defendant.

The plaintiff in the proceedings, in 1986, was working as a driver and in the course of his job made a delivery to the defendant's premises at Greenacre. After having made the delivery, he fell and badly injured his knee. He brought proceedings against the company to which he had been making the delivery. His case was that he had fallen in the defendant's car park area which had been in a broken condition in various parts of the concrete forecourt. His proceedings were based on an allegation of negligence against the defendant in that it had failed to keep the driveway in a safe condition, it failed to warn him of that condition, and upon similar allegations of negligence.