Caltex Oil (Australia) Pty Ltd v The Dredge 'Willemstad'

Citation: (1976) 136 CLR 529

N.B - This summary is a work in progress.

D while carrying out a dredging operations in Botany Bay, fractured a pipeline which carried petroleum products from a refinery on one side of the bay to the plaintiff's terminal on the other side. The pipeline was not owned by Caltex.
As a result of the damage to the pipeline, Caltex had to use other, and more expensive means of transporting the petroleum products. The P had not suffered any damage to its property, but the HCA upheld its claim to recover the purely economic loss of the additional costs of transportation.

Although the judgments themselves display a measure of difference in expression, the HCA has subsequently indicated that no differences of principles between members of that court were intended thereby.