What happened
In 2006 a council engaged an operator to supply a helicopter and pilot for an aerial weed survey involving two employees. All three occupants died when the low-flying helicopter struck a power line. One employee's widow and children sued the operator and council, alongside related compensation-recovery and contribution proceedings.
The issues
The central questions were whether the employee was a passenger and whether his family's psychiatric injury claims fell within the exclusive statutory regime for a passenger's death. The appeals also concerned flight planning, the council's duties as employer, marking of the power line and allocation of responsibility.
The court's decision
The employee was a passenger, and the majority held that the family's direct claims against the operator were excluded after the statutory right had expired. The council remained liable, with personal injury responsibility allocated one-third to it and two-thirds to the operator, subject to the operator's statutory limit. Claims against the electricity provider failed; in 2019 the High Court dismissed the appeal concerning the exclusive air-carriage regime.
What this case shows
A workplace death can engage a transport-specific liability regime as well as employer duties. Direct family claims, recovery of workers' compensation and contribution between defendants followed different legal paths here. Defeat of the direct claim against the operator did not extinguish the family's claims against the council.
Why another case may differ
This concerns the State and Commonwealth air-carriage legislation applicable to intrastate carriage in 2006, rather than statutory motor accident compensation. There was a dissent on psychiatric harm, but the High Court later upheld the majority's conclusion. Individual family awards, compensation adjustments, capped contribution and the separate aircraft property claim should not be combined as one payment received.
Applying it to your claim
Different facts, evidence or procedures, an appeal, or a change in the law may affect how this decision applies. This is general information, not a report of a case handled by Park & Co Lawyers.
Considering a second opinion? →