Principal contractor owed no duty of care to subcontractor's employee: Vella's Plant Hire Pty Ltd v Mistranch Pty Ltd & Ors [2012] QSC 77

Brief facts

Mr McKenzie was injured in a machinery rollover incident on 23 April 2007 during the course of his employment for Vella's Plant Hire Pty Ltd ("Vella's"). McKenzie sued Vella's and achieved a favourable settlement. Vella's maintained that the entities who engaged it to perform the work during which McKenzie was injured ("the principal contractors") should bear some responsibility for payment of McKenzie's damages. Justice McMeekin of the Supreme Court of Queensland was asked to determine the contribution proceedings between Vella's and the principal contractors.

Some relevant facts which were not disputed in the contribution proceedings included:

Vella's were a well-established excavation company who employed competent operators. Vella's were retained by the principal contractors to complete uncomplicated and routine works. Representatives from Vella's had attended the principal contractors' site and had appreciated the risks prior to McKenzie's incident. Representatives of the principal contractors had no particular experience with excavation works. Representatives of the principal contractors had placed pink tape in certain locations at the site to identify underground services and land boundaries. McKenzie encountered difficulties and ultimately suffered the rollover incident in a location at the site where the principal contractors had placed pink tape. McKenzie asserted that he had been told by the principal contractors that the pink tape marked the boundary of the desired excavation area, and thus the pink tape lead McKenzie into the location where the incident occurred. The principal contractors contended that the pink tape was erected in order to identify underground services in that...