Sharp v Stephen Guinery t/as Port Kembla Hotel & Port Kembla RSL Club [2001] NSWSC 336

New South Wales Supreme Court

CITATION : Sharp v Stephen Guinery t/as Port Kembla Hotel & Port Kembla RSL Club [2001] NSWSC 336 CURRENT JURISDICTION: Civil FILE NUMBER(S) : SC 20956/96 HEARING DATE(S) : 23 April 2001 JUDGMENT DATE : 23 April 2001

PARTIES : Marlene Sharp (Plt) Port Kembla RSL Club (2nd Def) JUDGMENT OF : McClellan J

COUNSEL : P Semmler QC/M Heath (Plt) P Deakin QC/J Turnbull (2nd Def) SOLICITORS : Milicevic Solicitors (Plt) PricewaterhouseCoopers Legal (2nd Def) CATCHWORDS : Judgment on application for verdict by direction - negligence action - whether plaintiff precluded from putting a case in negligence to jury - whether evidence of breach of duty - whether evidence which could establish that the taking of any step would have eliminated risk of plaintiff's injury - whether evidence before the jury that the risk of injury from tobacco smoke was reasonably foreseeable - whether rule in Browne v Dunn has application - s 23(4), s 42(1) Factories, Shops & Industries Act 1962 LEGISLATION CITED : Factories, Shops & Industries Act 1962, s 23(4), s 41(2) Browne v Dunn (1894) 6 R 67 Allied Pastoral Holdings Pty Ltd v Commissioner of Taxation [1983] 1 NSWLR 1 Payless Superbarn (NSW) Pty Ltd v O'Gara (1990) 19 NSWLR 551 Seymour v Australian Broadcasting Commission (1990) 19 NSWLR 219 CASES CITED : Schellenberg v Tunnel Holdings Pty Ltd (2000) 200 CLR 121 Rae v The Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited [1957] 97 CLR 419 Neill v NSW Fresh Food and Ice Pty Limited [1962] 108 CLR 362 Chugg v Pacific Dunlop Limited (1990) 170 CLR 249 McLean v Tedman & Anor [1984] 155 CLR 306 Khoury (M&S) v Government Insurance Office (1984) 54 ALR 649 DECISION : Paras 33 and 38