INXS guitarist Tim Farriss loses appeal for damages after career-ending hand injury

Tim Farriss has appealed the Supreme Court’s decision not to award damages for a career-ending hand injury he suffered eight years ago — and lost, again.

After four years of legal action, INXS guitarist Tim Farriss has walked away with nothing from his court action against the boat owners whom he claimed are responsible for the end of his performing career.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal Farriss has failed to appeal the Supreme Court’s decision not to award any of the $622,000 he sought in legal damages over the “traumatic” boating accident in which his finger was severed.

The Court of Appeal also dismissed the $40,000 that Farriss and his wife sought in “damages for economic loss” due to him not being able to play guitar following the injury.

INXS Guitarist Tim Farriss. Picture: Daily Telegraph

The 66-year-old severed the ring finger of his left hand in the chain of a chartered boat while he was trying to set anchor in Akuna Bay in Sydney’s north in January 2015.

He launched action in the NSW Supreme Court against the boat owners William Axford and Jill Mary Axford of Church Point Charter in 2019, claiming he would never be able to play with INXS again or write music on guitar after the accident.

He had claimed they were negligent, alleging they had failed in their duty to maintain the boat, warn him of the risk and properly instruct him.

INXS members Andrew and Tim Farriss on the red carpet at the 28th ARIA Awards in 2014. Picture: AAP Image

In January 2022, Justice Richard Cavanagh found in favour of the motor cruiser’s owners, John William Axford and Jill Mary Axford, and the agent who hired it out, and ordered Fariss to pay the Axford’s legal costs.

The judge had referred to inconsistencies and changes in what Farriss recounted about the accident, including when Farriss said he “couldn’t be 100 per cent sure” that he had not stepped on the foot pedal himself, causing the chain to engage.

“Needless to say I am very disappointed with the judgement and am looking at my options,” Farriss said in a statement after the ruling.

He then took the matter to the Court of Appeal last November, further alleging that the boat owners had failed to comply with statutory guarantees owed under Australian Consumer Law (ACL).

INXS band members (from left) Andrew Farriss, Jon Farriss, Michael Hutchence, Tim Farriss, Kirk Pengilly and Garry Gary Beers.

Farriss insisted there were insufficient instructions on how to operate the anchor, which he claimed should have been better maintained and equipped with warning signs.

He appealed the decision on grounds that the first judge did not “substantively consider the claims under the ACL because of concessions made by counsel in closing oral submissions.”

However the court dismissed his appeal last week, announcing their decision to uphold the primary judge’s ruling and once again ordered Farriss to cover the Axford’s legal costs.

“The fact that the anchor did not work precisely as intended did not mean that the boat was not reasonably fit for Mr Farriss’ purpose in chartering it,” the ruling read.

“The evidence did not support a conclusion that Mr Farriss would not have chartered the boat had he known about any such propensity of the anchor chain.”

The judges in the appeal also noted that Farriss did not present as a person who was inexperienced in boating.

Farriss was an original member of INXS, which formed in 1977, along with his brothers Jon Farriss and Andrew Farriss, Garry Beers, Kirk Pengilly and frontman Michael Hutchence, who died in 1997.

Their well-known hits include Never Tear Us Apart, Need You Tonight, New Sensation and Suicide Blonde.

INXS remain one of Australia’s most popular rock acts with their Very Best Of compilation spending more than 3000 weeks in the ARIA top 50.