South Australian Consolidated Acts

LAW REFORM (CONTRIBUTORY NEGLIGENCE AND APPORTIONMENT OF LIABILITY) ACT 2001 - SECT 7

7—Apportionment of liability in cases where the person who suffers primary harm is at fault

        (1)         If contributory negligence contributes to (but is not the sole cause of) the harm for which a claimant seeks damages, the claim is not to be defeated on the ground of the contributory negligence.

        (2)         If a claimant's harm is caused partly by another's negligent wrongdoing and partly by contributory negligence, the court must proceed as follows:

            (a)         the court must determine (and record) the amount of the damages to which the claimant would have been entitled assuming there had been no contributory negligence; and

            (b)         the court must then reduce the amount so determined to the extent the court thinks just and equitable having regard to the extent the contributory negligence contributed to the harm.

        (3)         This section applies subject to—

            (a)         any contractual modification, exclusion or limitation binding on the claimant or, in the case of a claim for damages for derivative harm, on the person who suffered the primary harm; and

            (b)         any statutory modification, exclusion or limitation.

        (4)         In this section, a reference to contributory negligence extends, in the case of a claim for derivative harm, to negligence on the part of the person who suffered the primary harm.