WILMERS & GLADWIN PTY. LIMITED V. GREEN

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ORIGINAL

IN THE HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA

—WILMERS.& GLADWIN PTY. LIMITED.

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT

'A.C. Brooks, Government Printer, Melbourne 6.763960

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JUDGMENT OF (QRAL) D. .

CORAM: BARWICK C.J. "AYER J.

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WILMERS & GLADWIN PTY, LIMITED

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GREEN

The proceedings before the Workers! Compensation Commission in which this case was stated were conducted by the parties on the footing that it could be held that the respondent, whose skin or some part of it became sensitized to certain substances to which his work as lithographic printer exposed him so as to make him susceptible to outbreaks of dermatitis, was suffering from "a disease of such a nature as to be contracted by a gradual process" within the meaning of s. 7(4) of the Act. Ina former employment as a lithographic printer and at a time when the sensitivity of his skin had become an irreversible condition he had several attacks of dermatitis which temporarily incapacitated him for work. Although in form the only question stated for decision by the Supreme Court was more widely expressed, this Court, because of the way the application had been fought by the parties before the Workers' Compensation Commission and the way the case had been argued before the Supreme Court, confined the appellant to the question whether, on the assumption that the respondent was suffering from "a disease of such a nature as to be contracted by a gradual process", there was evidence before the Commission upon which it could find that the appellant was liable under se 7(4) of the Act to pay compensation to the respondent for partial permanent incapacity resulting from the sensitive condition of his skin. The Workerst Compensation Commission had apparently decided that this condition or the process of acquiring it was "a disease of such a nature as to be contracted by a gradual process". The