STANCEVSKI v EPSTEIN & CO LIMITED T/as ZENITH HARDWARE [1996] NSWCA 486

STANCEVSKI v EPSTEIN & CO LIMITED T/as ZENITH HARDWARE

SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES — COURT OF APPEAL

SHELLER, COLE JJA and Simos AJA 29 August 1996

[1996] NSWCA 486

PERSONAL INJURY — workplace injury — assessment of damages — evidence — findings of trial Judge should not be disturbed

Sheller JA. The appellant appeals from a decision of his Honour Judge Patton, given on 4 December 1995. The appellant sued the respondent for a work place injury which took place on 18 January 1985. Liability was admitted.

The appellant was born on 6 March 1953 in Macedonia, formerly part of 'Yugoslavia, and arrived in Australia in January 1980. His Honour awarded the total damages of $42,572.90 comprising general damages of $30,000, interest of $12,000, $7,800 for past economic loss, interest at $7,800 and out-of-pocketexpenses of $6,500. The amount of damages awarded gave credit for $21,527.03 for worker's compensation benefits.

His Honour, in a very careful judgment, described the nature of the work that the respondent employed the appellant to do and said it was very light work. The accident involved the appellant, while working, being struck by a light fitting dislodged by a falling pallet or box. The appellant may have been unconscious for a short period of time before the ambulance arrived.

The nature of the complaints that the appellant made after this accident were set out in a report of the treating general practitioner, Dr Gavrilovic, which his Honour quoted and which it is unnecessary in this judgment to repeat. Suffice it to say that the plaintiff sustained a 5 centimetre long laceration over the right frontal region of his head, abrasion lesions over the right forehead and left forearm. An x-ray of the cervical spine showed C4/5, C5/6 disc spaces slightly narrowed with mild associated spondylosis and encroachment of the exit canals on the left of both levels.