November 9, 2022 5:00pm - November 9, 2022 7:00pm
Leo Cussen Centre for Law - Level 16/15 William St, Melbourne VIC 3000
Gideon Haigh on his 2021 book, “The Brilliant Boy – Doc Evatt and the Great Australian Dissent”. The book examines, in particular, Justice Evatt’s significant dissenting judgement in the 1939 High Court nervous shock case – Chester v Waverley Municipal Council [1939] HCA 25.
Noted by Barbara McDonald in ‘Great Australian Dissents’ (2016), the plaintiff’s claim in Chester “was non-suited at first instance and the Full Court of the Supreme Court of New South Wales dismissed her appeal. She appealed to the High Court. It was a novel case: Rich J describes the plaintiff as arguing for a ‘hitherto unknown cause of action’. The majority dismissed her appeal. Justice Evatt dissented…”
A Judgement ahead of its time and one that ultimately led to the development of the modern era in tort law around the recognition of psychiatric injuries sustained by both primary and secondary plaintiff’s.
Gideon will reflect on “The Brilliant Boy” – longlisted for 2022 Indie Book Awards and chosen as a ‘Book of the Year’ in the Australian, The AFR, and the Australian Book Review – and the relevance of Chester and Justice Evatt’s dissent in modern day society and the law.
He’s been a journalist since 1984, contributed to more than 100 newspapers and magazines, and published 42 books. His latest work is “The Night Was a Bright Moonlight and I Could See a Man Quite Plain: An Edwardian Cricket Murder”.
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