Nicole Michelle Nash v Jeannine Cripps

[2001] ACTSC 80

Nicole Michelle Nash v Jeannine Cripps [2001] ACTSC 80 (10 August 2001)

CATCHWORDS

DAMAGES –Motor vehicle accident – Soft tissue injury - Exaggeration of symptoms - Contributory negligence.

Griffiths v Kerkemeyer (1977) 193 LCR 161

Nominal Defendant v Gardikiotis (1996) 186 CLR 49

Purcell v Watson (1979) 26 ALR 235

Ramsay v Watson (1961) 108 CLR 642

Sibley v Kais (1967) 118 CLR 424

No. SC 475 of 1999

Coram:        Master T Connolly
Supreme Court of the ACT
Date:           10 August 2001

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE     )
  )          No. SC 475 of 1999
AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY )

BETWEEN: NICOLE MICHELLE NASH

Plaintiff

AND: JEANNINE CRIPPS

Defendant

ORDER

Coram:  Master T. Connolly
Date:  10 August 2001
Place:  Canberra

THE COURT ORDERS THAT:

1. Judgment be entered for the plaintiff in the sum of $22,373.55.

2. The parties to be hard on costs.

1. This is a claim for damages for personal injuries arising from a motor vehicle accident which occurred on the morning of 26 November 1998 at the intersection of Companion Crescent and Kingsford Smith Drive at Flynn in the Australian Capital Territory. Kingsford Smith Drive is a major divided road with two carriageways in either direction. Companion Crescent is a suburban road, with one lane in each direction and no medium strip, and it forms a T intersection with Kingsford Smith Drive. Access from Companion Crescent to Kingsford Smith Drive is controlled by a Give Way sign. For vehicles turning right from Companion Crescent into Kingsford Smith Drive and intending to travel in a generally southerly direction, there is an area within the central medium strip area where they can wait until it is safe to enter the traffic flow after safely negotiating northerly bound traffic. A chart map of the accident scene was prepared by the plaintiff and tendered as exhibit B, and was agreed by all sides to generally represent the accident scene.

1. It is the plaintiff’s case that she came to a stop at the give way sign in Companion Crescent, and proceeded to make a right hand turn when it was safe to do so as no traffic was proceeding in the northbound lane closest to her. She says that a car was proceeding in a southerly direction along Kingsford Smith Drive, not in the slip lane where vehicles turning right from Kingsford Smith Drive into Companion Crescent would be. She says that as she was in the central median strip area, this car, being an EH Holden, suddenly and at considerable speed attempted to make a right hand turn, but overshot the designated turning lane, and collided with the plaintiff. The plaintiff says that the point of impact occurred when she was in her correct lane in the right hand turn lane in the centre of the median strip, and the defendant had veered at speed across from her correct right hand turning lane, in effect overshooting across the marked divided area and coming into the incorrect plaintiff’s lane. On this case the accident would…