INXS Star Loses Appeal For Injury Damages

INXS lead guitarist Tim Farriss has lost an appeal in the Supreme Court for damages following his “career-ending” injury, The Daily Telegraph reports.

The injury was a traumatic one that happened eight years ago. Farriss’ ring finger of his left hand was severed in a boating accident as he was setting anchor in Akuna Bay in Sydney’s north in January 2015.

In 2019, Farriss launched court action in the NSW Supreme Court against the owners of the chartered boat, William Axford and Jill Mary Axford of Church Point Charter. Following the injury, Farriss claimed that he would never be able to play guitar or perform live again.

In January 2022, the judge found in favour of the Axford’s, which kickstarted Farriss’ appeal. However, this week, Farriss failed to appeal the court’s decision – he won’t receive the $622,000 in damages, and the $40,000 Farriss and his wife wanted in “damages in economic loss” due to the career-ending injury was rejected. Farriss has been ordered to cover the Axford’s legal costs.

In the judge’s ruling, the statement read, “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 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.”

Last month, INXS members Tim, Andrew and Jon Farriss, Kirk Pengilly and Garry Gary Beers gathered to celebrate a momentous band occasion: scoring over four billion plays on streaming music services. “It’s truly mind-blowing that our music has been streamed over 4,000,000,000 times—and incredibly humbling,” Tim Farriss said in a press release.

He continued, “Our success can be attributed to crafting amazing songs as a band that’s grown up together, made a pact, and devoted our lives to performing them. This achievement truly demonstrates the enduring relevance of our music to this day.”

INXS also commemorated another occasion last month, the release of the new 400-page fan-driven book Calling All Nations - A Fan History of INXS.

Calling All Nations is a fan-written and visual history of INXS that’s been lovingly curated by hundreds of fans while the band also supplied memories and archived material. You can order the book's first edition and deluxe editions via INXS.com.