ISKRA V. MCEACHERN

Po

IN THE HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT

Judgment delivered at_Adelaide

Leave to appoal granted. Appeal allowed with costs. Order that the verdict and judgment of the trial judge be varied by increasing the amount of the verdict from. $5988.49 to $9988.49.

ISKRA Ve " McEACHERN JOINT JUDGMENT BARWICK C.J

MENZIES J. WINDEYER J.

\.

McEACHERN '

} The appellant submits that the verdict and judgment for $5989.49 given in this case by the Supreme Court of South Australia was inadequate to compensate him for the injury he received and its consequences. There is no need to recite the events out of which the appellant's injuries arose; these appear in the reasons for judgment of the learned trial judge. He concluded upon all the evidence that as a result of the accident the appellant had suffered "some brain damage and that this together with the resultant subconscious

condition has had an effect on his earning capacity". In this

conclusion he was, in our opinion, fully justified. The

medical evidence clearly supported the view that the appellant, who had suffered a fractured skull and concussion which had kept him unconscious for five days, had not merely been physically damaged but that he had developed a neurosis which was related to his ability to perform work, even though the work itself was otherwise within his physical capacity. The eritical question inthe case was whether that incapacity resulting in a reduction in earnings had come to an end in October 1966 when the appellant ceased to be employed at the mill where formerly he worked or continued through the succeeding year when the appellant did not work and would probably continue for some time after the conclusion of the litigation. If it ended in October 1966, the amount of the verdict, whilst even in that case small in relation to the injury, and its consequences, including the pain and suffering endured and to he endured by the appellant, would not warrant