In the recent ACT Supreme Court decision of Hargrave v Singh [2019] ACTSC 139, the court considered the culpability of an intoxicated passenger, who was struck by a taxi which had dropped him home at the end of an evening, after the passenger had chased down the taxi to dispute the fare.
Background
The plaintiff’s allegation was that, on 24 May 2014, he (a then 21 year old male) was struck by a taxi, causing him to suffer a myriad of bodily injuries, as well as associated psychological trauma, in the aftermath of the accident. In most accidents of this nature, the legal liability that flows is relatively straightforward; the driver of the vehicle owes a duty of care to the pedestrian to not drive the vehicle in a way that may cause injury to another.
In this case though, the facts leading up to the incident were pivotal. Specifically, the plaintiff and his friends had attended the Mooseheads Pub in Civic, where alcohol was consumed. At trial, the plaintiff gave evidence of having pre-drinks at a friend’s home prior to arriving at the Pub at around 11pm. He then consumed five to six schooners of beer between 11pm and 3am.
At around 3am, the plaintiff, his girlfriend and other friends, shared a maxi-taxi home. After the plaintiff’s friends were dropped off at various locations, an argument arose between the plaintiff and the driver in relation to the total of the ultimate fare. In the end, the plaintiff’s girlfriend paid the fare by using the plaintiff’s credit card, and was given a receipt. When the plaintiff and his girlfriend alighted from the taxi, the driver commenced to take off. However, when the plaintiff viewed the receipt given by the driver, he proceeded to flag down the departing taxi to further dispute the charge to his credit card. In the course of doing so, the plaintiff was struck by the taxi, ending up being dragged into in the gutter. The taxi driver did not stop, and kept going on into the night.
Having suffered personal injuries, the plaintiff sued the driver in negligence in the ACT Supreme Court, with the claim ultimately heard and decided by the Honourable Justice Burns.
The Findings
The driver denied his driving of the taxi was carried out negligently, arguing the collision was caused by the taxi being chased down by the plaintiff (not vice versa). The driver further defended the claim on the basis that the court ought to presume the plaintiff was contributorily negligent for his own injuries, due to his intoxication, pursuant to section 95(1) of the Civil Law (Wrongs) Act 2002 (ACT) (the Wrongs Act).
That section of the Wrongs Act provides that “contributory negligence must be presumed if an injured person was intoxicated at the time of an accident giving rise to a claim for damages for personal injury and the defendant alleges contributory negligence”. That is to say, the court’s starting point must be that the intoxicated party was negligent, and work backwards from there to determine whether that presumption should be rebutted.
Subsection 95(2)(a) gives guidance on this, by clarifying that the injured person needs to establish, on the balance of probabilities, that the intoxication did not contribute to the accident; or the intoxication was not self-induced.
Here, after consideration of medical, expert and lay witness evidence from both sides, Justice Burns was not satisfied that the accident was caused by the plaintiff’s chasing down of the taxi, and that a reasonable person in the driver’s position could have avoided the accident. Judgment was thus entered in the plaintiff’s favour for just over $275,000.
However, in arriving at that judgment sum, His Honour did accept that the plaintiff’s intoxication had to be taken into account. In doing so, the effect of His Honour’s findings was that, but for the plaintiff’s intoxication and conduct, the damages awarded to him would have been 10% higher.
Key Lessons
The onus to rebut the effect of intoxication in a personal injury case falls on the intoxicated party. In the event an injured intoxicated person is unable to rebut the statutory presumption of contributory negligence, then the damages that injured person may be entitled to, apart from the contributory negligence, must be reduced to the degree that the court considers just and equitable.
In the present case, the plaintiff was lucky to have escaped without sustaining more serious injuries. Arguably though, he was also lucky to have his damages reduced by only 10 per cent, given the starting point under section 95(1) of the Wrongs Act is for the courts to presume contributory negligence exists in cases involving intoxicated plaintiffs, unless the plaintiff can satisfy the court of a good reason why that should not be the case. The legislative effect of section 95(1) may, of course, be a drag for plaintiffs to comply with, though it nevertheless is reflective of public policy that plaintiffs need be aware of when bringing such personal injury claims.
Injured in a motor vehicle accident? Contact our Litigation & Dispute Resolution team at BAL Lawyers.