Facts
- An employee of the Rottnest Island Authority dived off of some rocks and was seriously injured
- He sued the RIA stating they breached their standard of care
Issue
- Could the employer be held responsible
Held
- The Authority exercised a high degree of control over the area, e.g. maintaining bike racks and toilets
- The risk of someone jumping off the rocks was reasonably foreseeable so they should have acted, e.g. put up a sign
- There was close proximity between the employer and the employee
Note: the HCA has today moved away from ‘proximity’ toward ‘vulnerability’. Thus the outcome may be different today.
-- Download Nagle v Rottnest Island Authority [1993] HCA 76 as PDF --

