Queensland Consolidated Acts

CIVIL LIABILITY ACT 2003 - SECT 59A

59A Damages for gratuitous domestic services provided by an injured person

(1) Subject to section 59B , damages (
"section 59A damages" ) may be awarded to an injured person for any loss of the person’s capacity to provide gratuitous domestic services to someone else (the
"recipient" ) if subsection (2) or (4) applies.

(2) Generally, the court may award section 59A damages only if it is satisfied of all of the following—

(a) either—

(i) the injured person died as a result of the injuries suffered; or

(ii) general damages for the injured person are assessed (before allowing for contributory negligence) at the amount prescribed under section 58 , or more;

(b) at the relevant time the recipient was—

(i) a person who resided at the injured person’s usual residence; or

(ii) an unborn child of the injured person;

(c) before the relevant time, the injured person—

(i) provided the services to the recipient; or

(ii) if the recipient was then an unborn child—would have provided services to the recipient had the recipient been born;

(d) the recipient was, or will be, incapable of performing the services personally because of the recipient’s age or physical or mental incapacity;

(e) there is a reasonable expectation that, if not for the relevant injury, the injured person would have provided the services to the recipient—

(i) for at least 6 hours a week; and

(ii) for a period of at least 6 months;

(f) there will be a need for the services for the hours and the period mentioned in paragraph (e) , and the need is reasonable in all the circumstances.

(3) Subsection (4) applies if—

(a) the court is satisfied, as required under subsection (2) , in all respects other than that the injured person would have provided the services for the hours and the period mentioned in subsection (2) (e) and (f) ; and

(b) the recipient was provided with accommodation by a parent other than the injured person or with other care to which all of the following apply—

(i) it included accommodation provided other than by the injured person;

(ii) it was provided because the recipient is aged, frail or suffers from a mental or physical disability;

(iii) its primary purpose was to give the recipient or the injured person a break from their usual care arrangements.

(4) The court may award section 59A damages if it considers that—

(a) the injured person would not have provided the services for the hours and the period because of the provision of the accommodation or the other care; and

(b) awarding the damages is reasonable in all the circumstances.

Examples of circumstances that may make the award reasonable—

1 The injured person would have had custody of the recipient each alternate week for a full week at a time.

2 The recipient would have spent part of their school holidays with a non-custodial parent.

3 The recipient is an elderly parent and is placed in short-term or occasional respite care at a nursing home.

(5) In this section—

"gratuitous domestic services" means services of a domestic nature for which there has been, and will be, no payment or liability to pay.

"parent" includes a person who stands in the place of a parent.

"relevant time" means—

(a) generally, when the relevant injury happened; or

(b) if the symptoms of the relevant injury were not immediately apparent when it happened, when the nature and extent of the injury becomes known.