An appellate court will not disturb a trial judge's damages assessment where it is based on credibility findings supported by inconsistencies between oral evidence and contemporaneous documents, and the appellant cannot identify any respect in which the findings are glaringly improbable or contrary to compelling inferences. The effective cause of a pregnancy resulting from consensual intercourse without contraception is the intercourse itself, not antecedent negligent surgery that may have led to the relationship in which the pregnancy occurred. Where a defendant discharges the evidentiary onus under Watts v Rake by adducing evidence that post-accident symptoms are consistent with a pre-existing condition, the trial judge's finding on that issue will be upheld.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 1 later case that cites this judgment.