Noah's Law by Randa Abdel-Fattah Page A

succeeded had the deceased brought an action to recover damages for negligence against her employer.
    5. The claimant is entitled to recover the expenses associated with the deceased’s funeral (see annexure 2: funeral receipts) and damages equal to that which the deceased would have been entitled to recover had she not died and had she brought an action in negligence against her employer, Jenkins Storage World, for the reasons set out at paragraph 3.
    Claim
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    1. The claimant claims the following:
    (a) Expenses associated with the deceased’s funeral: $11,335.54.
    (b) Loss of expectation of benefit: $595,000.00.
    (c) Damages for pain and suffering.
    (d) Party/Party Legal Costs: $9455.
    Whatever happened to plain English? As far as I could tell, the case came down to this. A woman, Maureen, was murdered on her way to her car. I guessed it was a robbery that went wrong. Maureen’s husband was suing her boss. That part was pretty confusing. From what I could understand from the position paper, he was suing because Maureen’s boss was somehow to blame for her murder. Maybe there was a safer way for her to get the day’s takings to the Surry Hills store.
    I flicked through the folder in front of me. It included a stack of enlarged photocopies of photos in a plastic slip in the back. I took the photocopies out. The first photo was of the shopfront, with a sign reading jenkins storage world. Nothing out of the ordinary about it. The next photo was of a car park. It was pretty small. It looked like the car park was located at the back of the store. Its perimeter was fenced off with a high brick wall, and there were trees hanging over parts of the wall. I couldn’t tell if there were houses or buildings next to the car park because the shot was narrow.
    The next photo was of Bernie with his wife. Their arms were linked and they were smiling at the camera. She had crinkly eyes and a wide, genuine smile. I stared at the photo. Something about it caught my eye. They were standing in front of a large sign: FARNHAM STREET SHOPPING MALL . To the left of them was a butcher and to the right was part of another sign: woolw. I presumed it was a Woolworths sign. The shopping mall kind of reminded me of the one near my mum’s house. Mum lived off Farnham Street and we’d been up to the mall heaps of times. There was a butcher next door to the Woolworths. I flipped through the file, looking for Bernie’s personal details. I found a sheet of paper stuck to the inside of the file with his full name and address. Sure enough, he lived in Mum’s suburb. It kind of creeped me out. Somehow the whole situation seemed more personal now. Maybe I’d passed by this woman in the shops or in the car park. And now she was dead.
    I flipped over to the next photo and I was suddenly confronted with a close-up image of Maureen’s dead body on the ground. She was lying face down in an awkward, twisted position. My eyes fixed on her bloodied head and my stomach lurched.
    No wonder Bernie was so messed up. I put the photos away, wondering how Bernie must have felt seeing his wife’s head smashed up.
    As I finished arranging the position paper and annexures into five piles, I silently prayed that Bernie got the money he deserved to allow him to move on with his life.
    I wondered whether I should show Amit the pictures. I knew it would be breaking some confidentiality rules. But it’s not like I would be publishing the photos in the paper. I would just show them to Amit and then I’d bring them back.
    I put an extra copy of the position paper and annexures into my bag. As grossed out as I was by the photo, I still wanted Amit to have a look.

 
    Well it wasn’t Law & Order , and it wasn’t a criminal law case, but there was a death involved and as slack as it sounds that kind of case sure beat spilt milkshakes in a shopping centre or falling on your arse in a cinema.
    Anyway, I’d always been