Decision
Insurance Australia Limited t/as NRMA Insurance v Rababi [2025] NSWPICMP 744
Sixty-Second-Or-Less Read
A Claimant is involved in a motor accident and sustains an abrasion to the back of their hand. The Claimant alleges that the hand injury aggravated a pre-existing palsy condition resulting in loss of use of the right arm.
Did the motor accident cause a non-threshold injury entitling the Claimant to ongoing statutory benefits and common law damages?
In IAG v Rababi, the Review Panel found that the motor accident only caused an abrasion to the Claimant’s right hand, with no nerve involvement. The Review Panel applied the Court of Appeal’s decision in Allianz v Abawi and concluded that the abrasion was a soft tissue injury and, therefore, a threshold injury.
Principles
✅ A Claimant is not entitled to ongoing statutory benefits or common law damages if the only injuries they sustain in a motor accident are threshold injuries.
✅ Section 1.6 of the Motor Accident Injuries Act 2017 (MAIA) provides that a “soft tissue injury” is a “threshold injury“.
✅ An injury to the skin, which does not involve the nerves, is a “soft tissue injury” and, therefore, a “threshold injury“.
Facts
The Claimant was involved in a motor accident on 10 November 2022. He was driving his vehicle when the insured vehicle drove out from a petrol station and collided with the passenger side of his vehicle. He alleged that the accident caused a fractured nose and scarring to his right hand.
A threshold injury dispute proceeded to the Commission for assessment. The primary Medical Assessor determined that the accident did not cause any fracture to the Claimant’s nose. Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Allianz Australia Insurance Limited v The Estate of the Late Summer Abawi [2024] NSWSC 1245, the Medical Assessor certified that the scarring to the Claimant’s right hand was a non-threshold injury.
The Insurer successfully sought a review.
In response, the Claimant argued that the accident had aggravated his pre-existing Erb’s Palsy to the point where he no longer had the use of his right arm.
Erb’s Palsy is a type of brachial plexus injury which causes weakness or paralysis of the arm and shoulder muscles resulting from damage to the nerves running from the neck to the arm.
The Review Panel’s Decision
The Review Panel agreed with the primary Medical Assessor’s conclusion that the Claimant did not sustain any fracture to his nose in the motor accident.
The Review Panel also concluded that the only injury the Claimant sustained to his right upper limb was a soft tissue injury, for the following reasons:
🟪 The hospital discharge referral only referred to an abrasion of the right wrist and recorded good grip strength and intact sensation bilaterally.
🟪 An x-ray taken on the day of the accident did not reveal any structural damage or fracture to the right wrist.
🟪 A subsequent certificate of capacity did not refer to any loss of sensation or function.
🟪 The Claimant’s GP notes did not reference any deterioration in the Claimant’s arm function.
🟪 The lack of sensation affecting the back of the Claimant’s hand, at the location of the abrasion, was exactly the same as the loss of sensation affecting the Claimant’s forearm.
🟪 The abrasion to the back of the Claimant’s hand was superficial in nature and did not result in any significant scarring.
🟪 The abrasion to the back of the Claimant’s hand could not have caused the systemic loss of function and sensation along the entire forearm.
It followed that the only injury the Claimant sustained in the accident was an abrasion to the Claimant’s right hand with no nerve involvement.
The Review Panel noted that, based on the case law which existed at the time of their decision, the primary Medical Assessor was correct to find that the skin abrasion was not a soft tissue injury and was, therefore, a non-threshold injury.
Since that time, however, the Court of Appeal’s decision in Allianz Australia Insurance Limited v Estate of the Late Summer Abawi [2025] NSWCA 85 had been delivered.
The Review Panel applied the Court of Appeal’s decision and found that a skin injury which does not involve the nerves is a soft tissue injury and, therefore, a threshold injury.
Pete’s Perspective
The Review Panel’s decision in Rababi is one of the first to apply the Court of Appeal’s decision in Abawi.
My full Case Note on the Abawi decision can be found here.
PJH