GOVERNMENT INSURANCE OFFICE OF NEW SOUTH WALES v JOHNSTON [1991] NSWCA 111

GOVERNMENT INSURANCE OFFICE OF NEW SOUTH WALES v JOHNSTON

SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COURT OF APPEAL

MAHONEY, CLARKE and MEAGHER JJA 19 February 1991, 19 February 1991

[1991] NSWCA 111

Appeal from District Court — Plaintiff injured in motor vehicle accident — Defendant held negligent in driving too fast — Held: no error in judge's finding — Plaintiff crossed road from behind stationary bus — Looked both ways — Held: no contributory negligence — No question of principle.

Mahoney JA This is an appeal against judgment given by his Honour Davidson DCJon 2 May 1989. The judgment was for the plaintiff.

The plaintiff was injured in a motor vehicle accident, she being then, the court is informed, some seventeen years of age. The accident took place in Nelson Street Annandale at about 4 pm. The light at that time was no doubt sufficient to make visibility reasonable.

The circumstances of the accident are set out in the learned judge's judgment in the following terms: "The plaintiff gave evidence that on Thursday 19 September 1985 she was going home from school and at about 4pm alighted from a bus in Nelson Street. The bus, she said - and this appears to be common ground - was then double parked and she went to the rear of it. She said she looked both right and left and then right again before proceeding to cross the road. She knew nothing of the collision but regained consciousness in hospital.

The matter comes before me with both liability and damages in issue.

On the question of liability Mr Wyld gave evidence that he was travelling south in Nelson Street, that is to say, in the opposite direction to which the bus had been travelling. He said that he saw the bus before it stopped and after it had in fact stopped and that the plaintiff had come from behind the bus. To avoid a collision he had swerved and collided with a vehicle stationary on the opposite side of Nelson Street to the bus.