MOTT v DAVEY [1995] NSWCA 301

MOTT v DAVEY SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COURT OF APPEAL

COLE JA and GILES AJA 22 March 1995, 22 March 1995

[1995] NSWCA 301 No question of principle.

Cole JA In this appeal two matters were argued. The first was the quantum of general damages and the second was the amount allowed by his Honour of $100,000 for future loss of earning capacity.

The appellant has had a sad life and a history of the problems which have beset her prior to the two accidents with which these appeals are concerned is fully set forth in his Honour's judgment.

The appellant was unfortunate enough to be injured in two accidents which were close together, the first being on 29 June 1984 and the second on 6 October 1984. Liability is not in issue.

In relation to the first accident the appellant suffered an injury to her wrist which continues and has left a weakness and stiffness and some pain associated with it. She also suffered some trauma which produced some emotional disturbance for a short period of time but this had significantly quietened by the time of the second accident three months later on 6 October 1984.

The plaintiff was born on 3 August 1937, was aged almost forty-seven at the time of the first accident and was forty-seven at the time of the second accident. She was admitted as a solicitor in 1971. Prior to the accident she was working part-time for two firms of solicitors and, in addition, was doing legal costing work for others. She had been divorced in 1978. She had two teenage children at the time of the accident and, as his Honour recounted, she had had significant bouts of pre-accident reactive depression in 1961, 1966, 1975 and 1976, 1979 and 1981. Nonetheless she had successfully negotiated many of those depressive circumstances and had been conducting her life as a solicitor and cost specialist.