Greenslade v Hiew

[2022] WASCA 47

Western Australia Court of Appeal

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Torts
2. › Negligence
3. › Landlord and tenant
4. › Duty of care owed by lessor to tenant
5. › Injury caused by ceiling collapse
6. › Whether lessor had notice of defects requiring inspection
7. › Whether breach of duty established
1. Appeal
2. › Adequacy of reasons
3. › Whether trial judge failed to provide adequate reasons for findings
4. › Whether complaint of inadequate reasons disguised challenge to findings of fact
5. › Distinction between inadequate reasons and failure to address essential issue
1. Appeal
2. › Appellate restraint
3. › Challenges to findings of fact
4. › Principles governing appellate review of trial judge's factual findings
5. › Fox v Percy principles
1. Landlord and Tenant
2. › Residential tenancies
3. › Duty to inspect premises
4. › Whether statutory obligation to prepare property condition report gave rise to common law duty to inspect for structural defects
5. › Residential Tenancies Act 1987 (WA), s 27C

Quick Take

An appellant who confines grounds of appeal to inadequacy of reasons cannot use that ground to mount what is in substance a challenge to the trial judge's findings of fact. A complaint of inadequate reasons is immaterial where the true grievance is a failure to consider an essential issue, and an appellant cannot avoid the hurdles faced by challenges to factual findings by reframing the complaint as one about reasoning. The statutory obligation under s 27C of the Residential Tenancies Act 1987 (WA) to prepare a property condition report does not, without more, give rise to a common law duty to inspect premises for structural integrity.