Prosegur Australia Pty Ltd v Higgerson [2024] FCA 203

Federal Court of Australia

Prosegur Australia Pty Ltd v Higgerson [2024] FCA 203 Appeal from: Higgerson and Prosegur Australia Pty Ltd (Compensation) [2023] AATA 115

File number: NSD 171 of 2023

Judgment of: KATZMANN J

Date of judgment: 8 March 2024

Catchwords: WORKERS COMPENSATION – employee of "licensed corporation" within the meaning of the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1998 (Cth) (SRC Act) –where employee had long-standing problems with his left knee attributed to osteoarthritis after injuring the knee more than 17 years earlier in previous employment – where employee hyperextended the knee in an incident in October 2019 in the course of his employment with the licensed corporation – where liability for compensation for recent incident or injury due to the nature and conditions of the employee's employment was declined and decision affirmed on reconsideration – where employee applied for review by Administrative Appeals Tribunal – where Tribunal found that the employee suffered from an ailment, namely osteoarthritis, that he suffered from that ailment at the time of the October 2019 incident, that his employment with the licensed corporation did not make a significant contribution to the osteoarthritis and that the osteoarthritis was not a disease for the purposes of s 5B(1) of the SRC Act, whether Tribunal erred in law in finding that s 5A(1)(c) was satisfied in that the 2019 incident aggravated the 2002 injury (the impugned finding) – whether the Tribunal misconstrued 5A(1)(c) of the SRC Act by failing to determine what injury the employee sustained in 2002 whether Tribunal failed to give adequate reasons – whether there was no evidence to support the impugned finding or its finding was legally unreasonable – whether the Tribunal denied the licensed corporation procedural fairness by failing to notify it of its intention to make the impugned finding or give it a reasonable opportunity to be heard before doing so – whether Tribunal failed to consider various submissions