Coffey v Commonwealth [1968] HCA 35

High Court of Australia Owen J. Coffey v Commonwealth [1968] HCA 35

ORDER Judgment for the defendant Commonwealth. Plaintiff to pay the defendant's costs.

Cur. adv. vult.

June 18 Owen J. delivered the following written judgment:—

This is an action for wrongful dismissal brought by the plaintiff against the Commonwealth.

The facts are that in 1959 the plaintiff became an officer in the Commonwealth Public Service and was employed as a clerk in the Department of the Interior in Brisbane. At all relevant times a Mr. Huxham, the Chief Property Officer of the Department in Queensland, was, by virtue of s. 26 (1) of the Public Service Act 1922-1967 Cth, constituted a chief officer in relation to all officers of the Department of the Interior in Queensland with certain exceptions which are not material for present purposes.

On two occasions in December 1965 the plaintiff was late in attending for duty and thus committed breaches of reg. 13 of the Public Service Regulations which provides (inter alia) that—

An officer—

(c) who commences duty after the time at which he is required to commence duty on any day

(d) who ceases duty before the time until which he is required to perform duty on any day

(f) who is, during his hours of duty, absent from duty without the express permission of the Chief Officer or the officer in charge;

commits a breach of these Regulations. This resulted in Mr. Huxham giving the plaintiff a notice in writing on 15th February 1966 in the following terms: In connexion with your late attendances for duty on 8.12.65 and 13.12.65, namely 14 minutes and 7 minutes respectively, you are hereby required to perform duty between 4.51 p.m. and 5.12 p.m. on 15.2.66 under Public Service reg. 14 (1).

F. W. Huxham

Chief Property Officer.