Michelle Nihill sues Vivien’s Model Management over cliff fall
A model said she suffered PTSD, flashbacks and can no longer wear heels or stilettos after falling from a cliff during a “water inspired” photoshoot. She has tried to sue her eastern suburbs agency, arguing she had to learn to walk again.
Wentworth Courier
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A model who fell off a cliff mid-photoshoot and was flown to hospital with spinal injuries has attempted to sue her Double Bay-based agency.
Michelle Nihill, 23, was on an unpaid job arranged by Vivien’s Model and Theatrical Management with photographer Kane Lehanneur on November 18, 2015 when she took a four metre tumble off Blue Fish Point at North Head.
Ms Nihill, who was doing the “water inspired shoot” in exchange for images for her portfolio, was clamouring barefoot along a 30cm wide ledge when she slipped sideways and landed on the rock formation below.
Sydney District Court Judge John Hatzistergos heard her injuries included fracturing her pelvis and the heel bone on both feet and a “likely lumbar spinal injury”.
Ms Nihill was admitted to Royal North Shore Hospital for more than two weeks and was discharged in a wheelchair which she had to use for about three months.
Three months of physio followed so she could “learn to walk again” which required the use of a walking frame.
She can no longer wear heels, stilettos or wedges and is instead making do with sneakers and sandals.
Ms Nihill was initially treated for symptoms of anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder following the fall including “flashbacks” and “dreams she was falling” but those conditions have now resolved.
Ms Nihill told the court she did not want to climb down the cliff to pose by the North Head rockpools and gun turrets and told both Mr Lehanneur and his accompanying videographer Tyler Bell as much.
However, she said she felt compelled to do so.
“When I turn up to jobs, I feel that’s what I need to do,” she said.
“I feel that I need to do the job because that’s what I’ve been booked for and as I said before, it’s my passion, it’s my dream job to do that which is why – and then as I said yesterday, I put my trust in who I’m with the ensure I’m safe.”
Both men told the court they did not remember Ms Nihill expressing that she did not want to proceed although they do acknowledge telling her they’d done the climb, which signage prohibits, “many times before” and that “she’d be fine”.
“I said we were going to go to the rock pools … I said the path is going to be treacherous and if she didn’t want to do anything on the day then she didn’t have to and we could take the shoot somewhere else if need be,” Mr Lehanneur said.
While Ms Nihill is now employed part time as an early childhood educator at Little Diggers School at Collaroy Plateau, she told the court it is “not her passion” and she would prefer to still be a model.
However a report by Priscilla’s Model Management director Priscilla Leighton-Clark states “it is my considered opinion that this model would not have had a fruitful career”.
Ms Leighton-Clark explained in the year ending June 2014 Ms Nihill made just $1300, the following year $4634 and the year after that $2759.
However, she did have an offer from agency Only About Models in Korea who wanted to represent her and she intended to relocate to Asia to pursue the opportunity.
Judge Hatzistergos dismissed Ms Nihill’s claim and ordered her to pay the agnecy’s costs.