The Full Court held that 'intent to cause injury' under s 3B(1)(a) of the Civil Liability Act 2002 (Tas) requires actual subjective intention to inflict something more than trivial hurt or harm, but does not require proof of intent to cause an injury bearing any resemblance to the kind, nature or gravity of the injury actually suffered; a punch to the face was held to be self-evidently done with intent to injure, and that intent can be formed instantaneously. On s 6 (exclusion of damages for plaintiffs engaged in serious criminal conduct), the Court upheld a strict contemporaneity requirement: where the plaintiff's criminal conduct (punching the defendant) ceased approximately two seconds before the defendant's retaliatory punch caused injury, the plaintiff was not 'engaged in conduct' constituting a serious offence 'at the time of the incident' that resulted in injury, and s 6 did not apply. The Court distinguished Basten JA's observations in Dickson v Northern Lakes as directed to the specific factual context of competitive sport and not establishing a general requirement that the intended injury must bear the character of the injury actually suffered.
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