PLEASH v BUNT [1995] NSWCA 372

PLEASH v BUNT SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES — COURT OF APPEAL

MAHONEY AP and SHELLER JA 7 December 1995

[1995] NSWCA 372

Mahoney AP. The Court has come to a conclusion in this matter and I will ask Sheller JA to give the first judgment.

Sheller JA. Edna May Pleash appeals from a decision of Gallen DCJ in the District Court at Newcastle on 6 June 1995 in proceedings brought against the appellant by the respondent, Noelene Annette Bunt, to recover damages for injuries suffered in a motor vehicle accident. Liability was admitted.

On 12 September 1993 Mrs Bunt was a passenger in a motor vehicle involved in a collision with another motor vehicle driven by the appellant at the intersection of Turton Road and Griffiths Road, Lambton. At the time Mrs Bunt was aged fifty-five. She was fifty-seven at the time of the trial.

When the collision occurred Mrs Bunt was sitting in the front passenger's seat of the vehicle wearing a seatbelt when it was struck violently by the vehicledriven by the appellant. As a result of the collision Mrs Bunt was thrown about the inside of the vehicle. Her left leg was propelled forward so that her left knee flew up and her left foot hit the dashboard of the vehicle. As a result the left side of her left leg was badly bruised and she suffered shock. Her left foot was cut but did not require sutures. X-rays taken in the Casualty Section of the Mater Hospital to which she was taken showed no fracture. She was not treated at the hospital but was allowed to go home. She suffered low back pain of some severity. Gallen DCJ was satisfied that although previously in her lifetime Mrs Bunt had suffered occasional bouts of back pain the accident had aggravated this condition. His Honour compared the results of an examination of Mrs Bunt carried out by Dr Leeder in April 1993, when she had a range of movement, extension, flexion, etc which was consistent with her having no serious degeneration of the back, and the condition revealed by a CAT scan carried out after the accident on 6 October 1993. He was satisfied that as a result of the trauma involved in the collision, the condition of Mrs Bunt's back found by the CAT scan comments and in accordance with the opinions expressed by Dr Leeder and a surgeon, Dr Smyth, the plaintiff had chronic back pain in the lower back, and that this was caused by damage to the discs at L3/4, L4/5, L5/S1 caused by the collision of 12 September 1993. His Honour found that Mrs Bunt also suffered bruising to her body from which she had recovered, bruising to the abdomen and chest and for a short period some pain in her neck.