Ramsay v De Wet & Anor
[2022] QDC 287 · Devereaux SC CJDC
William Ramsay was a 19-year-old passenger in a car driven by his girlfriend when it left the road and crashed into a creek in February 2012. He was not physically hurt, but his girlfriend suffered catastrophic head injuries and he held her while waiting for the ambulance. He was left deeply affected and began drinking heavily. Years later, in September 2020, he was told at a Gold Coast hospital that he had post-traumatic stress disorder linked to the accident. He then started a claim against the driver and her insurer, but the normal time limit for suing had long passed. He asked the court to extend that limit. The court had to decide whether he had only recently learned an important fact about his injury. The judge accepted his evidence that no doctor had earlier told him he had PTSD connected to the crash, and that a specialist's later assessment confirmed the injury. The court granted the extension, allowing his claim to proceed.
Incident & injury
Passenger in a single-vehicle accident where the car left the road and entered a creek; the applicant was uninjured physically but witnessed his girlfriend suffer catastrophic head injuries and attended to her while awaiting the ambulance, subsequently developing PTSD.
- Body regions
- Psychiatric
- Diagnoses
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Comorbid alcohol dependence
- Incident date
- 18 February 2012
Quick facts
- Date of judgment
- 14 December 2022
- Claim type
- MAIA
- Proceeding
- Interlocutory
- Plaintiff outcome
- Successful
- Plaintiff age at injury
- 19
- Occupation
- waiter (at time of accident); university student Community & Personal Service Worker
- Whole Person Impairment
- 7%
Outcome
The court granted the applicant's application to extend the limitation period to 10 August 2021, accepting that he did not become aware of his PTSD or its link to the 2012 accident until diagnosed in September 2020, and that Dr Watt's October 2021 assessment was a further decisive material fact.
Key issues
Ramsay v De Wet & Anor [2022] QDC 287
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