Robinson, Allan --- "Mark Weston v Ronnie Charles Woodroffe" [1986] AboriginalLawB 17; (1986) 1(19) Aboriginal Law Bulletin 6

• Mark Weston V Ronnie Charles Woodroffe

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Mark Weston v Ronnie Charles Woodroffe

Mark Weston v Ronnie Charles Woodroffe

Northern Territory Supreme Court, Muirhead, A.C.J.

9 July 1985

Casenote by Allan Robinson

P and D had blood alcohol contents of .295 and .13 respectively when 0 took motor vehicle. P said that D had promised to knife him if he did not go in the vehicle. Evidence given that such promises taken seriously by tribal Aborigines. P lost leg when vehicle collided with power pole. D raised defences of violent, contributory negligence and illegal purpose.

His Honour found for P, holding that the combination of P's extreme intoxication (and attendant incapacity to appreciate assumption of risk) and D's threat were sufficient to negative voluntary assumption of risk. Similarly, D's coercion meant that P was not a participant in the crime or engaged in a joint illegal venture and D therefore still owed a duty of care: see Jackson v Harrison; c/f Smith v Jenkins. Finally; His Honour found that there was no contributory negligence as P, when he was becoming drunk, had no reason to anticipate that he would be a passenger in a vehicle driven by D. By the time he entered the vehicle he was not thinking rationally and apprehensive of what D might do if he did not get in.