Garry v Coffs Harbour City Council & Ors https://jade.io/article/338

Garry was an Irish backpacker holidaying in Coffs Harbour with his fiancée.

He joined others diving into a deep stream created by a training wall built by Council in cooperation with the State Government.  Six times Garry safely dived into the recreation channel and floated towards the sea.  On the seventh occasion he struck the variable depth of the recreation channel, broke his neck and became a quadriplegic.

The evidence showed that all the Authorities needed to do was warn the public of the variable depth created by the training wall and Garry’s quadriplegia would never have occurred.  They had studied the variable depth for many years; they just didn’t bother to let tourists to the area know.

Unfortunately, a frenzy of hysteria overwhelmed our Courts with doomsday predictions if civil liability was not curtailed and eleven of our finest judges followed that sentiment.  Garry failed in the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and the High Court of Australia.

Sadly, if Garry were able to sue today, he would probably be successful.  However, his injury would not happen today.  They finally bothered to put up a sign!

We are proud to have supported him throughout against the running of the tide, albeit at great expense to ourselves.