Rail Corporation NSW v Vero Insurance Ltd

[2012] NSWSC 632

Supreme Court of NSW

Built by Barristers,
For Australian Law.

1. CIVIL - Negligence - Collision between car and
1. train at level crossing - Local driver of car deceased - Driver of car negligent
1. Authority - Maximum speed through crossing not negligent
1. CIVIL - Suicide

Where a motor insurance policy uses the undefined term 'accident', a collision caused by the insured driver's inadvertence or negligence — as distinct from intentional conduct — constitutes an 'accident' within the ordinary meaning: an unlooked-for mishap not expected or designed (applying Australian Casualty Co Ltd v Federico and Fenton v Thorley & Co Ltd).
A third-party property damage policy covering 'legal liability for loss or damage to other people's property' does not extend to pure economic loss incurred by the claimant in maintaining its own business operations (here, alternative passenger transport), even where that loss is consequential upon the property damage.
On the question of whether a deceased driver committed suicide, there is no presumption against suicide; the court applies ordinary inferential reasoning, and the behaviour of the vehicle at the time of collision — particularly whether it was deliberately stopped on the tracks for a discrete period — is the most probative contemporaneous evidence.