Williams-Cook v Schloss

[2018] QDC 175

DISTRICT COURT OF QUEENSLAND

CITATION:

Williams-Cook v Schloss & Anor [2018] QDC 175

PARTIES:

DANIELLE MAREA WILLIAMS-COOK
(plaintiff)

v

ALLAN NEIL SCHLOSS
(first defendant)

RACQ INSURANCE LIMITED ABN 50009704152
(second defendant)

FILE NO/S:

3701/16

DIVISION:

Civil

PROCEEDING:

Trial

ORIGINATING COURT:

Brisbane

DELIVERED ON:

29 August 2018

DELIVERED AT:

Brisbane

HEARING DATE:

16-18 April 2018; final written submissions received 22 May 2018

JUDGE:

Jarro DCJ

ORDER:

Judgment for the plaintiff in the amount of $35,708.25.

CATCHWORDS:

DAMAGES – Personal injuries – Quantum – Where the plaintiff was injured in a car accident – Liability admitted – dispute as the consequence of the injuries caused by the car accident – Whether the plaintiff has suffered or will suffer loss of earnings as a result of the accident caused injuries

Civil Liability Act 2003 (Qld), s 55

Civil Liability Regulation 2014 (Qld), sch 4

Alliance Australia Insurance Ltd v McCarthy [2012] QCA 312

Onassis and Calogeropoulos v Vergottis [1968] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 403

Nucifora & Anor v AAI Ltd [2013] QSC 338

Souz v CC Pty Ltd [2018] QSC 36

COUNSEL:

A Canceri for the plaintiff

GC O’Driscoll for the second defendant

SOLICITORS:

CMC Lawyers for the plaintiff

Quinlan Miller and Treston for the second defendant

1. Ms Danielle Williams-Cook was injured as she drove her motor vehicle through the intersection of Fraser and Mackie Streets, Chinchilla on 6 August 2014, when a vehicle, being driven by the first defendant and covered by a policy of insurance with the second defendant, failed to give way and collided into the front passenger side of Ms Williams-Cook’s car. 

1. Ms Williams-Cook was 23 at the time of the accident.  She was 10 weeks pregnant. In fact she consulted a General Practitioner at the Miles Medical Centre seven hours before the accident to confirm her pregnancy.  She had previously experienced two miscarriages in the year prior to the accident. 

1. Ms Williams-Cook now seeks to recover damages for injuries she says she suffered in the accident.  Whilst the second defendant has admitted liability, the issue of quantum remains in dispute.    

1. Ms Williams-Cook claims to have suffered injuries to her right shoulder and lumbar spine, namely:

(a)        mild subacromial impingement of the right shoulder;

(b)        soft tissue injury to the right shoulder;

(c)        soft tissue injury to the lumbar spine; and

(d)        mild spondylosis of the lumbar spine.

1. The second defendant submits that the asserted injuries are not true because:

(a)        Ms Williams-Cook was examined by Dr Christopher Bell, Orthopaedic Surgeon, for the purposes of her claim for damages on 26 January 2016.  Ms Williams-Cook told him that she did not have lower back pain initially following the accident but said that this pain developed in subsequent months as her pregnancy progressed. 

(b)        Ms Williams-Cook was treated at the Chinchilla Hospital on the day of the accident.  She was concerned that her pregnancy had been affected, and this issue was investigated.  The only complaint of pain she made at that time was of muscular pains around the seat-belt area on…