The Court of Appeal upheld the trial judge’s decision that the plaintiff ‘s claim failed as he failed to establish that the advice provided on discharge for a period of leave, or the lack thereof, was causally related to his subsequent attempt to commit suicide and consequential hypoxic brain injury.

On 5 April 2017, in Stealth Enterprises Pty Ltd t/as The Gentlemen’s Club v Calliden Insurance Limited [2017] NSWCA 71, the New South Wales Court of Appeal handed down an important decision on the topic of the insured’s duty of disclosure and the insurer’s remedies.

Any originating process (eg Statement of Claim or Summons) filed in the Supreme Court must be personally served. In order to effect personal service on a person,  a copy of the originating process must be left with the person, or if the person does not accept the copy, can be put down in the person’s presence and by telling the person  the nature of the document.

There have been many cases on how to interpret insurance policies. The principles of policy interpretation are reasonably succinctly stated but it is their application and their interaction which can be difficult.

The Courts are mindful that a liability insurance policy must have business efficacy, however, there are limits, and recklessness that goes beyond mere negligence is often sought to be excluded via policy terms and conditions.

In this recent NSW Court of Appeal decision, an employer escaped liability for an injury allegedly suffered by a worker in the course of his employment as a trade’s assistant. The worker allegedly suffered a severe aggravation of a pre-existing injury when, while holding a beam that was being cut, the beam fell unexpectedly towards him.

A recent decision of the NSW Court of Appeal considered issues in relation to a doctor’s duty to warn patients of risks associated with treatment.

A recent decision of the NSW Court of Appeal considers issues of consent and the use of interpreters in circumstances where medical advice is conveyed to non-English speaking patients.

Ms Young successfully sued Aldi in the District Court of NSW following an incident at an Aldi supermarket. Ms Young injured her knees and lower back after stumbling over the prongs of a pallet jack full of strawberries which was being unpacked by an Aldi employee. Aldi unsuccessfully argued that its employee made Ms Young aware of the pallet jack and therefore the pallet jack was an obvious risk. A finding of 10% contributory negligence was made. Aldi appealed.

In our post of 3 September 2015, we reported the judgment in Wei Fan v South Western Sydney Local District, where a claim was made that three different hospitals were negligent for failing to diagnose acute cholecystitis (inflammation of the gallbladder), failing to investigate and manage his type 2 diabetes, allowing the plaintiff to fall out of the hospital bed and discharging him too early. He claimed that as a consequence he suffered very serious injuries including peripheral neuropathy, a fractured skull and traumatic brain injury.