Hypotheticals by Manny Wood Published in the Coffs Coast Advocate on 27 April 2019.
Barry has a credit account with his local convenience store.
When Barry attends the store to pay part of his account, the store owner, Mr Brown hits Barry with a wooden table leg.
Barry suffers injuries to the left side of his head resulting in profuse bleeding.
Barry is taken to hospital by ambulance and is diagnosed with facial fractures and the loss of vision in his left eye.
The eye does not recover and Barry remains blind in that eye, which still bleeds and causes him pain and headaches. He runs into things and knocks things over because he cannot readily judge distances. He has trouble sleeping and he suffers from flashbacks of the incident.
Barry talks to his solicitor about making a claim against Mr Brown. His solicitor conducts a property search and establishes that Mr Brown owns assets that could be used to satisfy a judgment against him.
Barry’s solicitor acts as his “tutor” and he commences proceedings against Mr Brown.
Mr Brown does not appear at the court hearing and the court proceeds to an assessment of Barry’s damages.
The court notes that Barry is 56 years of age and has a life expectancy of 27 years.
The court hears that a prosthetic eye would cost $20,000.
Although Barry had long-standing psychiatric problems which prevented him from working prior to the incident, given the “aggravated” nature of the “intentional act done with intent to cause injury” the court assessed Barry’s “non-economic loss” at $330,000.
The court ultimately ordered that Barry shall receive the sum of $330,000 plus a $10,000 “buffer” for a prosthetic eye, together with the payment of his legal costs.
If you would like Manny to address a particular legal issue, send your request to manny.wood@ticliblaxland.com.au or call him on (02) 6648 7487.