Paulette Richards v Orville Appleby
| Jurisdiction | Jamaica |
| Judge | Brooks P,Simmons JA,Laing JA |
| Judgment Date | 27 September 2022 |
| Neutral Citation | JM 2022 CA 100 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Jamaica) |
| Docket Number | PARISH COURT CIVIL APPEAL NO COA2019PCCV00016 |
[2022] JMCA Civ 33
THE HON Mr Justice Brooks P
THE HON Miss Justice Simmons JA
THE HON Mr Justice Laing JA (AG)
PARISH COURT CIVIL APPEAL NO COA2019PCCV00016
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL
Miss Althea Wilkins instructed by Dunbar & Co for the appellant
Miss Debby-Ann Samuels instructed by Debby-Ann Samuels & Co for the respondent
On 4 October 2009, Mr Orville Appleby was injured in a crash involving a motor vehicle belonging to Ms Paulette Richards. He was a passenger in that vehicle. He sued Ms Richards for damages arising from his injuries. There was no real dispute as to liability and so the main consideration for the learned Parish Court Judge who heard Mr Appleby's claim was the issue of damages.
Mr Appleby said that he suffered injury to his neck, back and his left knee. He testified that the injuries continued to affect him even up to the time of the trial in October 2015, when he was giving evidence. He said it restricted the length of time for which he could comfortably stand and that he even suffered erectile dysfunction up to about February 2014. His disability in that regard, he said, caused him to lose his girlfriend. He said, however, that the issue had been resolved and he had since got married.
Mr Appleby relied on a medical report of Dr S Parvataneni who saw him on 21 October 2009, that is, 17 days after the crash. He, however, provided no other medical evidence. The doctor reported that:
“On 21 st,, he gave history of back injury, pain in left [k]nee and neck.
On examination, he was clinically normal. Left knee & back [showed] no signs of any bony injury and were functionally normal. He was given Analgesics (pain relieving) medication & sent home.
As per history & examination, [h]e had multiple soft tissue injuries due to motor vehicle accident.”
The learned Parish Court Judge after hearing and seeing Mr Appleby found him to be a “very credible witness”. Based on the evidence before him and guided by the case of Trevor Benjamin v Henry Ford and others (unreported), Supreme Court, Jamaica, Claim No HCV02876 of 2005, judgment delivered 23 March 2010 (‘ Benjamin v Ford’), he awarded Mr Appleby the sum of $773,544.00 for general damages, “to include a solatium of $50,000.00 for loss of consortium”. He also awarded interest on that sum of 3% per annum from March 2015.
In this appeal, Miss Wilkins, for Ms Richards, has complained that there was no medical evidence to support the learned Parish Court Judge's award of general damages and that he only had Mr Appleby's evidence/say so, which was insufficient in the circumstances. Learned counsel relied on Reginald Stephens v James Byfield and Another reported in Mrs Ursula Khan's compilation, Personal Injury Awards made in the Supreme Court of Judicature of Jamaica (‘Khans’) volume 4, page 212. The award in that case, when updated to March 2016, (using the previous version of the Consumer Price Index (‘CPI’)) amounted to $221,909.16. She also relied on Gilbert McLeod v Keith Lemard reported in Khan's volume 4, page 205. When similarly updated, that award would be $586,242.30. Learned counsel submitted that those cases demonstrated that the learned Parish Court Judge erred. She urged the court to set aside the judgment and award $250,000.00 instead, as general damages.
We cannot agree with learned counsel. This court will only disturb an award of damages if the court below has erred in principle. In Cadet's Car Rentals and another v Pinder [2019] UKPC 4, Lord Lloyd-Jones, in delivering the judgment of the Privy Council, set out the principle as established by the authorities:
“7. An appellate court will not, in general, interfere with an award of damages unless the award is shown to be the result of an error of law...
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