BROCK and ANOR v RIVERS [1997] NSWCA 50

BROCK and ANOR v RIVERS SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COURT OF APPEAL

HANDLEY and POWELL JJA, and SMART AJA

25 June 1997, 25 June 1997

[1997] NSWCA 50

Damages — Tort — Assessment — Future events — Future economic loss

Damages — Negligence — Causation — Proof of — Accident materially contributing

Powell JA This is an appeal by the Defendants in an action which was heard by Herron DCJ in March 1995, in which action the Respondent sought to recover from the Appellants damages for injuries which he (the Respondent) claimed to have sustained in a motor vehicle accident on 6 February 1991.

At the time of the accident the Respondent, who was then a young man of eighteen years, was riding his motor cycle in Pelican Street Sydney, near the New South Wales Police Centre, when a vehicle driven by the First Appellant and owned by the Second Appellant did a U-turn at a time when the Respondent was at a point adjacent to the off-side rear of the Appellants' motor vehicle. In the result, the Respondent was thrown across the bonnet of the Appellants' motor vehicle and was thrown to the road.

After the accident, the Respondent was taken by a fellow employee to the nearby St Vincent's Hospital where he was admitted to Casualty and x-rayed, following which he was released to home. X-rays taken at the St Vincents Hospital at the time revealed that there were minimally displaced fractures of the bases of the left transverse process of the second and third lumbar vertebrae, but no other fractures or dislocation were noted.

At the time of the Respondent being discharged to home he was provided by the hospital with a letter of referral addressed to the Westmead Hospital, which one assumes was at the time the hospital nearest to his home, which letter of referral was as follows:

"Thank you for your review of this eighteen year old salesman who had a minor accident on his motor(sic) - and has fractured transverse processes Ll and 2. There is no parathesia or blood in urine, he is to have Panadeine Forte for analgesia.