CAMPBELL v GOVERNMENT INSURANCE OFFICE OF NEW SOUTH WALES [1991] NSWCA 43

CAMPBELL v GOVERNMENT INSURANCE OFFICE OF NEW SOUTH WALES

SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES — COURT OF APPEAL

CLARKE JA, MEAGHER JA and HANDLEY JA 14 November 1991

[1991] NSWCA 43

QUANTUM — NO ISSUE OF LIABILITY

Handley JA. This is an appeal by the plaintiff from the assessment of her damages by his Honour Ward DCJ. Liability was not in issue at the trial.

The plaintiff was injured in a motor vehicle accident on 31 December 1986 when she was forty-two years of age. She suffered serious physical injuries in that accident, which the trial judge summarised as follows:

There were fractures of the transverse processes on the left side of her spinal cord in the area of L3, L4 and LS. There was also a vertical fracture on the right side of the sacrum. The pubic bones were fractured, with bilateral inferior and superior rami weakened, and on the right side close to the set of bulum. Dr

Searle, whose evidence was accepted by the trial judge, expressed the opinion in his first report of 12 October 1989 that the fractures of the transverse processes of the lower lumbar vertebrae were an indication of the severe trauma which the plaintiff had suffered to this part of her body. Although the fractures had healed and were of little importance of themselves, the doctor expressed the opinion that the plaintiff had also suffered aggravation of her pre-existing but previously symptomless lumbar spondylosis and intervertebral disc lesions. This aggravation was persisting and permanent, and caused a severe degree of disability.

The Doctor considered that the plaintiff was permanently unfit for work which required prolonged sitting or prolonged standing, lifting or repeated bending or travelling moderate distances regularly. With regard to the prognosis, the doctor expressed the opinion that there will be a gradual increase in her symptoms and disability from her lumbar injury with the passage of time, because the degenerative changes will progress inexorably. This progress will be more rapid than might otherwise have been expected, because the degenerative changes had also been accelerated by the accident.