JANKOVIC v MAYOH [1991] NSWCA 156

JANKOVIC v MAYOH SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES — COURT OF APPEAL

CLARKE JA, MEAGHER JA and HANDLEY JA 11 November 1991

[1991] NSWCA 156 NEW TRIAL — DENIAL OF NATURAL JUSTICE

Handley JA. This is an appeal by the plaintiff from the assessment of damages by his Honour Judge Mahoney DCJ. At the trial liability was only formally in issue and the only issue in the appeal concerned the quantum of damages.

The trial judge awarded the plaintiff $31,416. The plaintiff had been injured in a traffic accident on 21 April 1982. He suffered injuries at that stage to his right knee, his right rib cage. his right temple, his cervical spine and this caused problems with headaches and disturbed sleep. However he was only away from work for three days.

A major issue at the trial concerned the alleged causal link between the injury which the plaintiff sustained to his right knee in the traffic accident and a furtherinjury to his left knee which he sustained over two years later.

The plaintiff said in evidence that in May 1984 his right knee suddenly gave way as he was descending the stairs in a block of units at Liverpool where he lived. As a result he fell and injured his left knee.

The trial judge said that it had not been established to his satisfaction that the condition of the plaintiff's left knee had anything whatsoever to do, either directly or indirectly, with the earlier motor vehicle accident. He reached this conclusion as a result of a number of matters in the evidence which he referred to in his reasons for judgment. The challenge to this finding by the appellant is based on a denial of natural justice. The trial judge indicated to Mr Joseph of counsel, then appearing for the plaintiff, during his final address, that he need not address any further on the existence of a causal link between the traffic accident and the later injury.