Assignment Task:
Task:
In answering the questions, please ensure that you use relevant primary sources (cases and statutory provisions) to support your analysis and conclusions reached.
Fact scenario
The Meredith Show Society Inc. holds an agricultural show once a year. There are many events and competitions that take place at the show and one of the competitions gaining in popularity each year is the wheelbarrow competition. The competition requires a team comprising two adults, one to push the other in a wheelbarrow through an obstacle course in the fastest time. The course is 240 metres long and includes hills and water obstacles. There is a 5 second penalty if the partner who is being pushed falls out of the wheelbarrow or even touches the ground. All teammates being pushed are required to wear a helmet. However, for those teammates who are doing the pushing, wearing a helmet is optional. The Meredith Show Society Inc. does not provide the competitors to this event with a waiver of liability form to sign. First prize is the pushed teammate’s weight in beer.
Alicia and Peter have been married for five years. Alicia is currently staying at home to care for their 3-year-old daughter Grace while Peter works full time as a partner at a large law firm, earning $5000 net per week. Alicia and Peter recently moved to Meredith in order to be closer to nature and they enjoy bushwalking and bike riding with their daughter in tow. Alicia and Peter attend the Meredith Show with their daughter and Peter’s parents, and decide, just for fun, to enter the wheelbarrow competition. They have been watching these competitions on YouTube and have been practising at home in their small garden. They pay their $5 entry fee and at the start line, Alicia climbs into the wheelbarrow. Grace demands a pony ride so Peter’s parents walk with Grace over to the ponies and away from the race.
The start gun goes off and Peter and the other competitors start running with their wheelbarrow passengers towards the first obstacle, being a steep sand hill which then drops into a water hole. As Peter runs into the water hole he slips on a tarp that is surrounding the sides of the water hole. He falls headfirst into the water and knocks his head on a tree trunk that was protruding slightly above the water. He is knocked unconscious, pulled from the water by Alicia and other spectators, and is bleeding heavily from his head.
Peter is taken to the local hospital where he is seen in the emergency department by Dr Will who is a newly qualified doctor. Dr Will provides a diagnosis that, as a result of the accident, Peter has suffered lacerations to his head and neck that are superficial. He sends Peter home and recommends bed rest. Hours later, Peter is in extreme agony and Alicia calls an ambulance. On arriving at the hospital again, another doctor, Dr Gardiner, examines Peter and discovers that he has sustained nerve damage to his spine. On learning that Peter had been earlier admitted to the hospital, Dr Gardiner is alarmed to learn that Dr Will did not conduct a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test of Peter, which would have shown the nerve damage and enabled appropriate treatment. Dr Gardiner is of the view that most emergency doctors would have known of the need to perform such a diagnostic test.
Question 1:
Advise Peter whether Dr Will breached his duty of care to him. Do not discuss the other elements of the negligence action. (You can assume that the hospital is liable for the actions and omissions of Dr Will.) (5 marks)
Question 2:
Advise Peter whether he has a good cause of action against the Meredith Show Society Inc. in negligence. Do not discuss defences or damages. (25 marks)
Question 3:
Discuss what defences to a negligence action might be available to Meredith Show Society Inc. and why. (10 marks)
Question 4:
Read the additional facts provided and advise Peter of any entitlement to compensatory damages from Meredith Show Society Inc. (10 marks)
Peter’s initial hospital and medical expenses are calculated at $350,000. Following the accident Peter can no longer work. He requires one hour of assistance each day with personal care tasks such as dressing and showering. Alicia provides this care for five months until Peter has recovered enough to no longer require her assistance with these tasks. She then decides to return to the workforce, since Grace is ready to start childcare.
Question 5:
Read the additional facts provided and advise Meredith Show Society Inc. whether they owe Peter’s mum a duty of care regarding the relapse of the PTSD she suffered. (10 marks)
Peter’s parents do not see the accident. However, when they see the commotion next to the obstacle course they run over to see Peter on the ground, unconscious and bleeding. Peter’s mum goes into shock, which also triggers a relapse of her post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a recognised psychiatric condition that she had previously suffered when she was the victim of an armed burglary five years earlier.
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