BLEICHER v HAWTHORNE [1995] NSWCA 49

BLEICHER v HAWTHORNE

SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES — COURT OF APPEAL

CLARKE JA, HANDLEY JA and COLE JA 9 March 1995

[1995] NSWCA 49

No question of principle

Cole J. This is an appeal from a decision by Master Malpass in which he awarded the sum of $210,000 plus interest and costs to the appellant Horst Bleicher for injuries suffered by him in a motor vehicle accident which occurred on 24 October 1987.

The appellant is a barrister. He had some prior experience and qualification in various forms of electrical and mechanical engineering and he was also qualified as and has practiced as an accountant.

The only issues which arise in this appeal relate to the sums awarded by the Master for past and future economic loss.

The Master awarded a sum of $30,000 for loss of past earning capacity and $80,000 for future loss of erning capacity. The measure of difference between the parties is reflected in the claim by the appellant that past economic loss awards should have been $320,000 and future economic loss should have been $790,000.

As a result of the accident, as the Master found, the appellant suffered a cognitive disorder which was described as being no more than mild. The appellant came to the Bar in 1979. He was then aged 51 years having been born in 1928. At the trial he was 64 years of age, a time at which, as the Master held, retirement may have been approaching although the appellant had characteristics which indicated that he was likely to continue to practice into his seventies.

The appellant had a number of advantages at the Bar. He had accountancy qualifications, he was described as being energetic and good with detail and had high intellectual ability, and he had an intense approach to his work. On the other hand, he had various qualities which Senior Counsel for the appellant described as demerits. One was the age at which he came to the Bar. The second was that he had no prior legal experience. A third was he apparently had a heavy germanic accent, and a fourth was what was described as a dogmatic or forcefulness of manner which may have detracted from his capacity to earn or achieve work. At the date of the accident he had been at the Bar for some eight years.