The wife of former Newcastle Knights assistant coach David Furner has won $1.5 million in damages after she slipped and fell at an open house in Garden Suburb three years ago.
Kellie Furner, 53, was once a social, vibrant mother of three who loved going to the movies, the local bowling club for a meal and was heavily involved in the dancing world spurred on by her time as the head of the Canberra Raiders cheer squad.
But a fall in the driveway of a home in Cupania Crescent on January 18, 2020, has left her struggling to complete even basic household chores - going under the knife twice for an injury to her neck, she's still looking for ways to deal with her pain.
On August 3, Supreme Court Judge Ian Harrison ruled in favour of Mrs Furner, ordering the homeowners at the time Alan James John Jackson and Linda Kondouras and CK1 Realty Pty Ltd, headed by Cveta Kolarovski, to pay $1.5 million in damages.
The day of the fall, Mrs Furner had gone to work at her job as a community relationships coordinator for the Newcastle Knights before heading to Cupania Crescent to inspect an open house with her husband.
When she stepped on the driveway, which was still wet from rain earlier that morning, she slipped and landed on her right elbow and hip - her husband and another couple who had just pulled up outside the property rushed over to help her.
Once she was back on her feet, she took a couple of steps towards the front door and slipped again, this time Mr Furner was able to stop her from falling.
A week earlier, the homeowners had painted the driveway - which an expert found failed Australian Standards when wet, arguing they hadn't provided safe access and egress to the property and "should have known the steep driveway was a hazard when wet".
In the car on the way home from the inspection, Mrs Furner told her husband words to the effect of, "I am going to be sore tomorrow, I can already feel the bruising".
The next day, the pain in her neck had grown. She claims she put the kettle on to make a cup of tea and stretched her arms up when she felt a "pop" in her neck that left her doubled over in pain.
Concerned about her welfare, Mr Furner, who has represented NSW and Australia in rugby league, drove her to Lake Macquarie Private Hospital where a CT scan and X-ray didn't reveal any damage.
Mrs Furner was given some pain relief and sent home. When things failed to improve, she was taken back to hospital where an MRI showed she had a bulging disc in her neck.
A cortisone injection and two surgeries later, she has lost feeling in two of the fingers on her left hand and needs help with cooking, cleaning, shopping, dressing and washing.
According to court records, she feels "hopeless" and has suffered with suicidal thoughts - wakes up from bad nightmares screaming and has lost motivation in life, no longer making dresses for the dance competitions she loves or able to walk the family dog.
In court, the defendants didn't deny the fall, but made blanket denials of negligence and rejected Mrs Furner's claims she had sustained injuries or disabilities as alleged - or at all.
At a hearing, the defendants denied liability, however admitted Mrs Furner had suffered injuries from the fall but disputed the cause of her neck injury.
Judge Harrison preferred the evidence of psychologist Dr Kate Glancey over that of witness for the defendants psychiatrist Dr Lee, who made a diagnosis of "malingering".
"As I stated earlier, he formed an adverse opinion of the plaintiff, as the plaintiff did of him," he said.
"In my view, it was up to him to take steps to establish a therapeutic alliance and even if partially successful, the plaintiff may have disclosed her psychological symptoms and may have undertaken psychometric testing.
"Had she taken this combative approach with other medical practitioners, I would not have arrived at this view."
A log of text messages between Mr Jackson and real estate agent Ms Kolarovski show that after the accident, Mr Jackson sent a text concerned about the look of the driveway, telling her, "there is now a bad rust mark across it after trying products to remove slippery paint when wet".
The defendants were ordered to pay $1.5 million to Mrs Furner, $317,500 of that for non-economic loss, with Judge Harrison arguing her quality of life had been "seriously affected".
She will be paid $228,570 for past out-of-pocket expenses, $119,130 for future out-of-pocket expenses and $359,924 to cover her future earning capacity - as well as funds for past economic loss, loss of superannuation, future and past care needs.
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