Sofia Diega Perez-Coronado v Frederick Ferguson & Janelle Hopkins

[2002] ACTSC 80

Sofia Diega Perez-Coronado v Frederick Ferguson & Janelle Hopkins [2002] ACTSC 80 (23 August 2002)

CATCHWORDS

DAMAGES – Personal injury – Motor Vehicle Accident – Soft tissue injuries - Aggravation of previously intermittently symptomatic degenerative condition in left shoulder and spine – No issue of principle

Australian Postal Corporation v Bessey [2001] FCA 266
Griffiths v Kerkemeyer (1977) 193 CLR 161
Nominal Defendant v Gardikiotis (1996) 186 CLR 49
Ramsay v Watson (1960) 108 CLR 463
Wilson v Piesley (1975) 7 ALR 571

No. SC 788 of 2000

Coram:        Master T. Connolly
Supreme Court of the ACT
Date:           23 August 2002

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE     )
  )          No. SC 788 of 2000
AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY           )

BETWEEN:SOFIA DIEGA PEREZ-CORONADO

Plaintiff

AND:FREDERICK FERGUSON

First Defendant

AND:JANELLE HOPKINS

Second Defendant

ORDER

Coram:  Master T. Connolly    
Date:  23 August 2002
Place:  Canberra

THE COURT ORDERS THAT:

1. Judgment for the plaintiff against the defendants in the sum of $53,111.07

1. Defendants to pay the plaintiffs costs

1. This is a claim for damages for personal injuries arising from a motor vehicle accident which occurred on 13 August 1999 at the intersection of Matina and Bungonia Streets in Narrabundah in the Australian Capital Territory.  I am satisfied that the accident occurred as the plaintiff was stationary attempting to execute a turn and was struck from behind by a vehicle owned by the first defendant and driven by the second defendant.  Liability is not contested and no issue arose as to contribution.  There is a photograph in evidence of the damage to the plaintiff’s vehicle, which indicates an impact of some force.  The plaintiff complains of neck, shoulder and back injuries and ongoing pain and disabilities.

1. There is a degree of common ground between the plaintiff and defendant medical reports that the plaintiff sustained soft tissue injuries in the accident and now has symptoms consistent with a degenerative lumbar and cervical spine.  The expert medical reports have all proceeded on the basis that the plaintiff was previously asymptomatic, so they have provided opinions based on the accident rendering symptomatic a previously asymptomatic degenerative condition.  It is the defendant’s case that the plaintiff had a prior history of neck and back pain and left shoulder pain.

1. The plaintiff was born in 1953 in Nicaragua.  She left school at the age of 16 and married, having three children of that marriage before her husband left her.  She commenced a de-facto relationship with her present partner when she was about 25 years of age, and they lived in Costa Rica for a period before migrating to Australia in the mid 1980’s.  The plaintiff has some English, but she elected, as is her right, to give her evidence through an interpreter.

1. She says that at the time of the accident she was most concerned about her daughter who had been sitting in the back seat and complained of neck pain.  She took her to the local doctor that night, and it was not until the next day…