Klazidis v Hellenic Club Ltd t/as Alpha Restaurant [2020] NSWDC 43

District Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Klazidis v Hellenic Club Ltd t/as Alpha Restaurant [2020] NSWDC 43 Hearing dates: 27-28 February 2020 Date of orders: 20 March 2020 Decision date: 20 March 2020 Jurisdiction: Civil Before: Smith SC DCJ Decision: 1. Verdict for the plaintiff. 2. The defendant pay the plaintiff damages in the amount of $47,868.45. Catchwords: TORTS – Negligence – Personal Injury – expert reports – experts not required for cross examination – requirement to prove facts of underlying opinion – credibility finding. Legislation Cited: Civil Liability Act 2002 (NSW), ss 5D, 15(2) Texts Cited: DSM-IV: Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Text revision, 4th ed DSM-V: Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th ed Category: Principal judgment Parties: Fotina (Tina) Klazidis (Plaintiff) Hellenic Club Ltd t/as Alpha Restaurant (Defendant) Representation: Counsel: Mr L Morgan (Plaintiff) Mr A Ahmad (Defendant)

Solicitors: Turner Freeman (Plaintiff) Holman Webb (Defendant) File Number(s): 2019/106449 Publication restriction: Nil

Judgment 1. On 6 April 2016 the plaintiff was given a notice of termination of her employment for reason of redundancy. She had been working as the office manager of a real estate agent in the inner west of Sydney for approximately three years. On the evening of the following day, she and two former colleagues went to dinner at Alpha Restaurant in the city. As a waiter was bringing a drink to the plaintiff he accidentally dropped the glass onto the table. The glass shattered on impact. A shard from the glass went into the plaintiff's left thumb causing a complete rupture of the extensor pollicis longus tendon which required debridement and repair under surgery. 2. The plaintiff commenced these proceedings in 2019 seeking damages for non-economic loss, economic loss both past and future, domestic care and out of pocket expenses. The defendant has admitted liability and accepts that the non-economic loss suffered by the plaintiff is 25% of a most extreme case and is entitled to out of pocket expenses ($4,868.45) but argues that the plaintiff is not entitled to any other damages. 3. The plaintiff has exaggerated the effects of her injury and has not established either that she has any need for domestic assistance or has suffered a loss of earning capacity as a result of her injury. For those reasons, there will be judgment in her favour limited to an award for non-economic loss and out of pocket expenses.