My daughter lives in Millswood in Adelaide, h Australia. Two…

Hello and thank you for your question.

Council would only be liable for this incident if it could be demonstrated that they were negligent in some way, and that what they had done had caused or significantly contributed to the accident. So, for example, if council's arborist had 'trimmed' the tree in a way which unnecessarily weakened it, or had failed to take action after being put on notice that the tree was unhealthy and in danger of falling, then they might be liable depending on the circumstances.

Be aware that it is much more difficult to establish a council's liability for an incident such as this than if it were a private owner in an urban setting, because council's are not subject to the same standards of care as private land owners, and may have literally millions of trees under their control, and the courts have long held it is not reasonable to expect council's to inspect or maintain each and every one of them.

So I would suggest your daughter contact council and see what she can find out about the relevant tree and whether council knew anything about it or had been notified about problems with the tree, but if she cannot find out anything she will have little prospect of recovering anything against council.

Similarly, your daughter could only be held liable by the ex if she had in some way been negligent. Parking on the street is generally an entirely reasonable thing to do so unless she had knowledge of both the severe storm and the ill health of the tree it would seem unlikely that he could successfully claim against her.

I trust the above assists your understanding.

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Thank you,

Patrick