ONSLOW PASTORAL PTY LTD v COLLINS [1988] NSWCA 108

ONSLOW PASTORAL PTY LTD v COLLINS

SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COURT OF APPEAL

Hope, MAHONEY and CLARKE JJA 20 October 1988, 20 October 1988

[1988] NSWCA 108

Negligence — motor cycle accident — verdict by jury in favour of plaintiff — appeal on liability and damages — no question of principle. ORDERS (1) Appeal allowed; (2) Judgment set aside; (3) New trial ordered limited to damages; (4) Order as to costs of first trial affirmed. Respondent to pay costs of the appeal.

Hope JA The plaintiff was injured when at nineteen years of age he was riding a motor cycle on a road outside Goulburn, went over the crest of a hill and ran into sheep which were being driven along the road for the defendant.

The injuries which the plaintiff suffered as a result of the accident concerned his knee; I will not trace the history of his operations, disabilities and inconvenience consequent upon the accident and the injury but, in due course, he returned to employment, although after a while in a rather different employment to that in which he had been engaged at the time of the accident.

He had previously been a shearer and a rouseabout. After the accident he found difficulty in doing that work and became employed as a delivery man for a firm called Lilac City Distributors. He had no plans at the time of the trial to return to the shearing sheds, and his delivery job was what he regarded as his job for the indefinite future.

His action came on for hearing in the District Court before his Honour Judge Lloyd-Jones and a jury, and the jury returned a verdict in favour of the plaintiff in the sum of $190,076.20 with a finding of contributory negligence on the part of the plaintiff of five per cent. Having regard to the jurisdictional limits of the District Court appropriate to the case, the verdict was reduced to $100,000 plus interest.