A defendant by any other name is just as liable: when Union is conflated with University

How can you pursue an attacker you don’t know exists? 

Image credit: Patrick McKenzie. A dreadful accident.

Employed as a clinical psychologist at the University of Sydney, Baggs knew the layout of campus well. She made sure to concentrate and be alert when descending the hellishly steep Wentworth stairs. She knew that their glossy sheen rendered them precariously slippery. With this in mind, she ascended and descended flights on the regular without injury.

Alas, all hell broke loose one misty May morning in 2003. The Wentworth Building was dimly lit. An ailing Baggs was on the way to the Medical Centre when, like a bolt from the blue, a thunderous fire drill sounded and shook the very Earth (or so it felt). Discombobulated, she slipped and fell down the stairs. 

After seven years of convalescence (and perhaps some dithering), Baggs pursued the University of Sydney for negligence in failing to adequately create a safe environment. However, in a moment of poetic dramatic irony for any onlookers who knew the true owner of Wentworth, Baggs realised too late that it was not indeed the University of Sydney who was purportedly negligent, but the University of Sydney Union! 

Baggs attempted to reinvigorate proceedings in April 2011, this time against the force of the union. However, by this time, her claim had lapsed far past the three-year limitation period mandated by the Limitation Act 1969. 

In the case’s first hearing, it was ruled that Baggs’ ignorance to Wentworth Building’s true owner was irrational — Baggs ought to have known, trial judge Fullerton J. shared, that it was University of Sydney Union property. After all, at the time of the incident, the walls were covered with signs bearing the truth: “University of Sydney Union: Wentworth Building”. 

Chagrined and dissatisfied, Baggs appealed the decision. She truly did not know of this Union as a separate body  — it did not even represent her, as an employee rather than student. It was found that Baggs did not know of the University of Sydney Union’s mere existence, let alone legal liability. How can you pursue an attacker you don’t know exists? 

Let the fable of Baggs and her slip be a cautionary tale to those who traverse Wentworth in precarious conditions, and to those who do not read building signs!