John Smith v Canberra Labor Club

JOHN SMITH v CANBERRA LABOR CLUB
[2005] ACTSC 121 (2 December 2005)

PERSONAL INJURIES – Automatic door closes on patron.
DAMAGES – Assessment – accident causes fractures to plaintiff with long-term polio – loss of muscle condition – significant restriction on mobility.

Jones v Dunkel (1959) 101 CLR 298
RPS v The Queen (2000) 199 CLR 620
The Council of the Shire of Wyong v Shirt (1979) 146 CLR 40
Griffiths v Kerkemeyer (1977) 139 CLR 161

No SC 717 of 2000

Judge:     Connolly J  
Supreme Court of the ACT
Date:      2 December 2005

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE     )
  )          No SC 717 of 2000
AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY )

BETWEEN:JOHN SMITH

Plaintiff

AND:CANBERRA LABOR CLUB

ACN 008 546 030

Defendant

ORDER

Judge:  Connolly J
Date:  2 December 2005
Place:  Canberra

THE COURT ORDERS THAT:

1. There be judgment for the plaintiff in the sum of $449,039.00 with costs.

1. This is a claim for damages for personal injuries arising from an accident that occurred on the evening of 10 November 1998 when the plaintiff fell while leaving the defendant’s premises which was known as the Canberra Workers Club (the Club), a licensed club facility in Canberra City.  At the time of the accident the Club was operated by the defendant.  The plaintiff, who was born in 1951, suffered from poliomyelitis as a child and, as a consequence, had longstanding bilateral lower limb paralysis.  Despite this disability, he has been able to live a full and active life, and at the time of the accident was able to get about using callipers and Canadian crutches.

1. The plaintiff’s case is that on this evening he and a work colleague had attended a meeting of a fishing club at the defendant’s premises.  He drove to the venue, parked his car, and walked with his crutches up the disabled ramp and through the automatic glass doors into the Club.  He had a meal and a couple of light beers and then attended the meeting.  At about 8.30 pm the meeting finished and, while his friends remained to play the poker machines, he decided to go home.  He says that as he was going through the main glass automatic sliding doors of the Club, the doors closed on him and the glass door struck his right crutch just at the point when he was placing weight on it.  The crutch was pushed away, and he fell heavily.  As his legs were in callipers, I am satisfied that he fell heavily and fractured his left femur and dislocated his left patella as well as sustaining superficial contusions to his face and leg.

1. While these injuries were in themselves substantial, the plaintiff’s case is that the consequences of the damage to his leg has been to very substantially reduce his mobility.  It is the plaintiff’s case, strongly supported by the medical evidence, that for a person who has sustained poliomyelitis, a long period of immobility following an injury such as this can lead to a…