Mallonland Pty Ltd & Anor v. Advanta Seeds Pty Ltd
Case No.
Case no B60/2023
Case Information
Lower Court Judgment
28/02/2023 Supreme Court of Queensland (Court of Appeal) (Morrison & Bond JJA, Williams J)
Catchwords
Torts – Negligence – Pure economic loss – Duty of care – Where appellants and other group members commercial sorghum growers who between 2010 and 2014 conducted business of planting and commercial cultivation and sale of sorghum – Where they purchased, via distributors and resellers, “MR43 Elite” sorghum seeds manufactured by respondent, which were contaminated – Where MR43 sold in bags with “Conditions of Sale and Use” printed, including generic disclaimer – Where trial judge and Court of Appeal found that respondent did not owe duty of care to appellants – Whether Court of Appeal erred in failing to find respondent owed duty of care to appellants as end users of respondent’s product, to take reasonable care to avoid risk that such end users who used product as intended would sustain economic losses by reason of hidden defects in those goods – Whether Court of Appeal erred in finding that presence of disclaimer of liability on product packaging negated any assumption of responsibility by respondent so as to preclude duty of care on part of manufacturer arising, and thereby overwhelming consideration of all other salient features – Whether Court of Appeal erred by proceeding on basis that potential for farmers to avail themselves of contractual and statutory protection in dealings with distributors, and absence of statutory protection of farmers as consumers in Commonwealth consumer protection legislation, were matters which supported not expanding protection available to persons in position of applicants by recognising duty of care.
Documents*
13/10/2023 Hearing (SLA, Canberra by video connection)
26/10/2023 Notice of appeal
01/12/2023 Written submissions (Appellants)
01/12/2023 Chronology (Appellants)
09/01/2024 Written submissions (Respondent)
31/01/2024 Reply
06/03/2024 Hearing (Full Court, Canberra) (Audio-visual recording)
06/03/2024 Outline of oral argument (Appellants)
06/03/2024 Outline of oral argument (Respondent)