Judgment date: 10 November 2011
Price v State of New South Wales [2011] NSWCA 341
Court of Appeal1
In Brief
- Always go back to basics when examining the scope of duty and
breach. Section 5B of the Civil Liability Act 2002
(CLA) is simply a statutory expression of the
Shirt Calculus. It is a contextual and balanced assessment of the
reasonable response to a foreseeable risk.
- The relationship between a prison and an inmate is a special
one. The scope of duty turns upon factors such as the level of
control a prison has over the inmate, the assumption of
responsibility of each inmate and the inmate's loss of
autonomy.
Background
In early January 2006, Mr Price, the appellant, was an inmate at
Parramatta Correctional Centre (PCC). During an
exercise break at the PCC, Mr Price was watching a tennis match and
was hit in the eye with a tennis ball sustaining a detached retina
and substantial loss of vision to his right eye.
