IVARS v SABAG MANAGEMENT PTY LTD [1995] NSWCA 212

IVARS v SABAG MANAGEMENT PTY LTD

SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COURT OF APPEAL

SHELLER and COLE JJA 6 March 1995, 6 March 1995

[1995] NSWCA 212

No question of principle.

Sheller JA The Court is in a position to deliver judgment in this matter. Mr Justice Cole will deliver the first judgment.

Cole JA This is an appeal from a decision of a jury which in December 1993 awarded a verdict in favour of the appellant in the sum of $3,265. That sum was, omitting a few cents, the amount of out-of-pocket expenses which had been incurred by her in consequence of a injury which she said she suffered whilst working for the respondent on 24 October 1985.

On that day she lifted a carpet, which apparently was heavy, and suffered some injury to her back. From that date until the date of a subsequent injury suffered in a motor vehicle accident on 28 February 1987, the appellant did not lose any time from work. Nonetheless she was seen by a significant number of doctors including Doctor Kiardi, Doctor Irani and Dr White. She suffered some back injury, the nature of which may be thought to have been shown in a CAT scan which was carried out on 28 January 1987, a month before she suffered a second injury in the motor vehicle accident on 28 February 1987.

After the second injury in the motor vehicle accident she commenced proceedings in respect of that injury against others and those proceedings were settled. At about the same time these proceedings were commenced.

It seems clear that by awarding the appellant only the amount of her out-of-pocket expenses the verdict of the jury is perverse. The jury was instructed that they should, if they found for the plaintiff, award her a sum which took into account out-of-pocket expenses. It is obvious from both her evidence and the evidence of the doctors to whom I referred that she did suffer some pain in consequence of the injury suffered in October 1985 and prior to the motor vehicle accident in February 1987.