Facts: One evening Hunter, an Aboriginal man, was attending a dance with his de facto wife. He was arrested for using obscene language, forcibly removed from the dance hall and taken to the police watch-house. There he was brutally beaten by two police officers, with a third officer helping to prevent his escape. After the beating, the third officer urinated on Hunter while he lay immobile. At trial the officers were ordered to pay compensatory damages for the injuries inflicted, as well as large sums for both exemplary and aggravated damages. They appealed these awards of damages.
Issue: Had the amounts for exemplary and aggravated damages been excessive?
Decision: The damages awarded had not been excessive and, in the circumstances, Hunter was entitled to large sums for both exemplary and aggravated damages.
Reason: Speaking for the court, Williams J considered the definition from Lamb v Cotogno (1987) 164 CLR 1, that aggravated damages are "awarded for injury to the plaintiff's feelings caused by insult, humiliation and the like". He went on to say (at 415-416):
"This was, in my view, a classic case for a high award of aggravated damages … In any circumstances the act of urination in the course of an assault would … call for an award of aggravated damages. But when the guilty party is a police officer, a person in authority, and the act is performed in the presence of other senior ranking police officers, the incident cries out for an even higher award. And finally, when one adds into the case the racial overtones present here, then a jury assessment of the appropriate award for aggravated damages is largely unrestrained."