Miller v Jones (No. 6) [2020] NSWSC 736

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Miller v Jones (No. 6) [2020] NSWSC 736 Hearing dates: 21, 22, 23, 24 and 25 October 2019 Date of orders: 17 June 2020 Decision date: 17 June 2020 Jurisdiction: Common Law Before: Bellew J Decision: (1) I enter a verdict in favour of the plaintiff.

(2) I direct the parties to bring in Short Minutes of Order calculating the final judgment sum in accordance with this judgment.

(3) I stand the matter over for further directions before me until 10 July 2020 at 9:30am.

(4) I reserve all questions of costs pending further submissions from the parties. Catchwords: TORTS – Negligence by medical practitioner – Breach of duty – Where plaintiff suffered an injury to the anterior cruciate ligament of his right knee in the course of playing professional rugby league – Where the defendant was an orthopaedic surgeon who performed a reconstruction of the plaintiff's anterior cruciate ligament – Where the plaintiff alleged the defendant breached his duty of care by performing the surgery in a suboptimal manner because of malpositioning of the graft – Standard of care expected of a reasonably competent orthopaedic surgeon – Breach of duty established

TORTS – Medical negligence – Causation – Whether the breach of duty caused the plaintiff's ongoing disabilities – Whether the breach of duty caused the plaintiff to lose an opportunity to pursue a career as a professional rugby league player – Whether an infection also contributed to the plaintiff's ongoing disabilities

TORTS – Negligence – Damages – Where damages were to be determined according to the law of France – Where the plaintiff lost an opportunity to pursue a career as a rugby league footballer – Where the plaintiff suffered non-financial losses – Where the plaintiff lost the opportunity to pursue a career in the mining industry