The Court held that an insurance broker's report prepared after an accident, where the defendants had already consulted solicitors and were aware of serious injuries, was prepared in contemplation of proceedings for the purposes of s 69(3) of the Evidence Act 1995 (NSW), engaging the exclusion from the business records exception. A representation in a business record about another person's state of mind is not within the 'personal knowledge' of the representor under s 69(2), and s 62(2) confirms that a previous representation of another person is excluded from personal knowledge. The Court admitted the document with significant limitations: the first representation was confined to proving the defendants' own state of mind/intention, the second was limited to the state of contract documents, and the third was admitted with the excision of words attributing a purpose to the plaintiff.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 3 later cases that cite this judgment.