NEW SOUTH WALES INSURANCE MINISTERIAL CORPORATION v TRAJKOVSKI [1995] NSWCA 316

NEW SOUTH WALES INSURANCE MINISTERIAL CORPORATION v TRAJKOVSKI

SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COURT OF APPEAL

PRIESTLEY and COLE JJA 10 March 1995, 10 March 1995 [1995] NSWCA 316

NEGLIGENCE — RECOVERY OF DAMAGES — loss and impairment of earning capacity. Held: It is not necessarily illogical to discount future economic loss because of limited capacity to engage in work without similarly discounting past economic loss. Court should not interfere with trial judge's view of credit of plaintiff unless there was striking evidence to warrant doing so.

Priestley JA The trial judge in this case set out the facts, his reasons and conclusions in a particularly clear and easy to follow way. I do not think it would be a sensible use of the time of anyone present here today for me to restate laboriously, or even do any comprehensive summary of, the materials relevant to this appeal. Instead I will adopt the method of assuming that anyone interested in reading the court's reasons for the conclusions we have reached in this case would also have available those of the trial judge, which will enable me to confine myself to stating the points taken by the appellant and what in my view is the appropriate response to each point taken.

In not calling upon the respondent to the appeal the court intends no disrespect to senior counsel for the appellant who put his client's case vigorously and interestingly.

The first point taken was that the trial judge had not properly borne in mind the acknowledged principle that in an action for negligence in New South Wales an injured plaintiff recovers damages for loss or impairment of earning capacity as distinct from a direct recovery of past and/or future lost earnings. That is a principle of longstanding and has recently been affirmed once more by the High Court in Medlin v State Government Insurance Commission.