$l00,000 Claim By Crash Victim

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31551, 13 December 1967, Page 34

$l00,000 Claim By Crash Victim

(N.Z. Press Association)

WELLINGTON, Dec. 12.

A young motorcyclist claiming $lOO,OOO damages for injuries received in an accident with a car had no recollection of the events of two or three weeks before the crash, and no ’real memory of anything which occurred some months afterwards, his counsel told the Supreme Court today.

Graeme George Paddison, aged 20, of Waverley, is seeking damages from Murray Stanley Robinson, a clerk, of Lower Hutt. Being a' minor, Paddison is suing through his father, John Seaton Paddison, a farmer. An amount of special damages totalling $5658.60 has been agreed to between the parties. The case, being heard by the Chief Justice (Sir Richard Wild) and a jury of 12, is expected to last three days. Counsel for Paddison (Mr F. D. O’Flynn) said evidence would be called from doctors that the plaintiff suffered severe brain damage and other injuries and was now fit to be employed only in some sheltered position, whereas before the accident he was a hard-working, intelligent youth who had been employed in a department store, a cheese factory and a freezing works. His brain injuries had resulted in a number of mental

changes—he had lost some control of conduct and speech, and his lack of restraint extended to his emotions. He was more irritable and more prone to outbursts of temper than previously. As a result, he was really fit for employment only in some kind of institution where he could be watched.

When the plaintiff was discharged after six months in hospital just before last Christmas, a butcher who was friendly with his family gave him employment without pay for a few hours a day. That lasted only two weeks because the plaintiff cut himself badly. Then he took a similar kind of job with a panelbeater, but was unable to hold it down.

Mr O’Flynn said the broad headings under which damages had to be considered in this case were pain and suffering, economic loss, and loss of enjoyment of life. The plaintiff would be deprived of all the money he might have expected to earn in the course of his life, and his loss of enjoyment of life was as large as could be. The case is proceeding.