REDLAND City Council and a North Stradbroke Island real estate agency have been cleared of wrongdoing in a five-year, multi-million-dollar court case where a man fell off a cliff and became a paraplegic.
Andrew Morris unsuccessfully sued council and Ray White Stradbroke Island for nearly $1.7 million after he was injured falling 20m on to Frenchman's Beach, where he was holidaying for his 40th birthday in February 2010.
He claimed he fell because the council failed to put up signs directing people to a safe path to the beach or warnings alerting people to the dangers of the cliff.
He also claimed the council was negligent for allowing a path on the headland to lead to a dangerous area.
Mr Morris claimed an employee of the island's Ray White Real Estate agency gave him inaccurate directions to steps to the beach.
But, on Friday, Supreme Court judge Justice Glenn Martin dismissed all claims against the council and found it had not been negligent.
Before the case went to trial in February, Justice Martin dismissed the claim against the real estate agency after Mr Morris decided not to pursue it and did not provide any evidence.
In his written judgment, Justice Martin said the risk of someone falling off the cliff was reasonably foreseeable and said there was contributory negligence from Mr Morris.
He found the council had no obligation to erect signs on the headland where there was no path to the beach and ruled Mr Morris to pay council's costs.
He also ordered Mr Morris to pay the estate agency's costs based on the highest indemnity.
A spokesman for the real estate agency said Justice Martin agreed with the assessment of Ray White's lawyers that the claim against the agency was "unsustainable".
"We have always been comfortable with the way Ray White Stradbroke Island had conducted themselves and we are pleased to see them vindicated," the spokesman said.
