VINCENCIO v GOVERNMENT INSURANCE OFFICE OF NSW [1993] NSWCA 281

VINCENCIO vy GOVERNMENT INSURANCE OFFICE OF NSW

SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COURT OF APPEAL

CLARKE, MEAGHER and HANDLEY JJA 1 November 1993, 1 November 1993 [1993] NSWCA 281

Damages — Inadequate — no question of principle

Clarke JA This is an appeal from a judgment of Judge Karpin given on 11 October 1991. In that judgment her Honour assessed the damages for which the respondent was admittedly liable in the sum of $15,172. That figure was divided between general damages in the sum of $14,500 and special damages being $672.

The appellant complains that the damages are inadequate. In particular the complaint is made that there should have been an allowance for past economic loss between the accident and 1989 and that the award for general damages was grossly inadequate.

The case was a difficult one involving a relatively young woman who had been born in Chile in 1954. She had arrived in Australia aged twenty-four years in 1979, having had what seems to have been a childhood which could not be described as particularly happy. She had had, so the history would seem and the doctor's reports reveal, a difficult relationship with her parents and with her father in particular. In 1979 she married but shortly thereafter became pregnant to another man. An abortion took place and following this she attempted suicide and spent a week in hospital. There appears also to have been another unsuccessful suicide attempt.

In 1980 she was divorced and she became pregnant again to the person with whom she had formed a relationship shortly after her marriage. On this occasion a daughter Cindy was born and that event occurred on 21 February 1981. It would appear, although it cannot be described as clear, that she did not work for two or three years after the birth of her daughter, but in 1983 she had what she described as two nervous breakdowns. These upsets resulted from her difficult relationship with the father of the child. Her employment history was somewhat chequered and the evidence relating to this is also somewhat vague. It would seem that in 1984 she worked for a short period - it may have been a few weeks or a few months - with Helio Plastics and she did not work again until she commenced her employment with Utilux in September 1985. She was employed with that company when she was involved in an accident which led to her claim. That accident occurred on 13 December 1985 and immediately following it she worked until 20 December when the factory closed down for Christmas.