YOUNG v J D COATES PTY LTD [1990] NSWCA 192

YOUNG v J D COATES PTY LTD SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COURT OF APPEAL

MAHONEY and MEAGHER JJA and WADDELL AJA 24 September 1990, 5 October 1990

[1990] NSWCA 192

Appeal from District Court — Phobia resulting from eating apricot kernels containing excess cyanide — Assessment of damages — Contest as to plaintiff's psychiatric condition before and after poisoning incident — On facts found, no grounds for interfering with $5,000 award of general damages. Appeal dismissed with costs.

Mahoney JA On 10 February 1975 The plaintiff ate some apricot kernels which apparently contained an excess of the chemical cyanide. She suffered injury because of it. The defendant has, for the purposes of the present proceeding, admitted liability for the damage suffered by the plaintiff. The plaintiff's claim against the defendant came before his Honour Acting Judge Callaway for assessment of damages. On 21 March 1988 his Honour awarded the plaintiff damages of $21,352, comprised of $15,000 general damages and $6,352 interest.

In the plaintiff's appeal to this Court the only ground of appeal specified in the Notice of Appeal is "That the damages awarded by his Honour were inadequate".

As his Honour recorded, the plaintiff claimed damages "for what amounted to a phobia with related symptoms of anxiety depression and other problems, such phobia being associated with the eating of processed foods of various types and the consequences upon her lifestyle of such phobia and related symptoms". No claim was made for loss of earning capacity or for out of pocket expenses. The plaintiff, in her oral evidence, described the effect upon her following eating the kernels: she was flushed, "in mental agony", ill on the stomach and nauseated and she vomited.

His Honour said:

"As I have indicated above, the plaintiff claims that as a result of the mental agony and physical illness through which she went on the day of ingesting the poison, she found it not possible with any comfort to eat processed foods. Her social life was seriously handicapped and in general her lifestyle had been affected following the frightening consequences of the poisoning. She gave evidence of the ways in which she claims her lifestyle had been affected, both in relation to what she was able thereafter to eat, and in relation to matters such as her attendance as a social club, her eating out and having friends to visit and to eat at her place and her playing tennis and the like."