Moore v Scenic Tours Pty Ltd (2020) 268 CLR 326

Facts: Mr & Mrs Moore spent their life savings on a European cruise aboard the Scenic Jewel. The cruise was advertised as a “truly unforgettable...once in a lifetime cruise along the grand waterways of Europe” on which guests would be treated to “all-inclusive luxury”. The cruise was disrupted by flooding. Instead of 10 days on the Scenic Jewel, the Moores spent for 3 days aboard a different vessel and hours travelling by bus. They claimed damages for, inter alia, damages for disappointment and distress.

Issue: One issue is whether damages for disappointment and distress constituted personal injuries for non-economic loss. Scenic submitted that Moore’s disappointment and distress was “an injury” for the purposes of Pt 2 of the Civil Liberties Act because it was an impairment to his mental condition.

Held: The Court held that ‘[f]rustration and indignation as a reaction to a breach of a contract under which the promisor undertook for reward to provide a pleasurable and relaxing holiday is, of itself, a normal, rational reaction of an unimpaired mind': [22]. The damages were not limited by the Civil Liberties Act.

The Court then cited Baltic Shipping Co v Dillon as authority for the proposition that ‘disappointment and distress “caused by the breach of a contract ... the object of the contract being to provide pleasure or relaxation” is a compensable head of loss separate and distinct from injured feelings’: [24]. Moore’s right to recover damages for disappointment and loss was securely established.