ON 12 NOVEMBER 2014, the High Court of Australia delivered Hunter and New England Local Health District v McKenna; Hunter and New England Local Health District v Simon [2014] HCA 44 (12 November 2014)

The High Court held that Hunter and New England Local Health District did not owe a duty of care to the relatives of a man who was killed by a patient who had been discharged from the Taree Hospital into the deceased man’s care. No duty of care was owed by the hospital or the doctor because they were under statutory obligations under the Mental Health Act prohibiting the detention of a mentally ill patient unless the hospital’s medical superintendent was of the opinion that no other less restrictive care was appropriate and reasonably available.

  1300 00 2088