Bavcevic v Commonwealth [1957] HCA 67

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296 HIGH COURT [1957.

[HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA.)

BAVCEVIC . : i f : : . APPLICANT ; APPELLANT, AND

THE COMMONWEALTH . j i ' . RESPONDENT. RESPONDENT,

H.C. or A, Compensation—Commonwealth employees—Injury—Lotal incapacity for work—

1957. Medical board—Certificate—Conclusiveness as to matters certified—Residual ae capacity in employee—Whether incapacity nevertheless total—' Odd lot" — Pern, Burden of proof—Commonwealth Employees' Compensation Act 1930-1954, Sept. 18, 19; ss. 13 (1) (2), 19 (4), 20. MELBOURNE, B., a labourer employed by the Commonwealth Department of Works and Oct. 30. Housing, sustained in the year 1948 an injury in respect of which he received Ge, compensation in the form of weekly payments estimated on the basis of total Webb and incapacity pursuant to the provisions of the Commonwealth Employees' Com-

pensation Act 1930-1954. In 1950 he applied for the redemption of such weekly payments by the award of a lump sum, but this application was refused by the Delegate of the Commissioner for Employees' Compensation upon the ground that the Act did not permit of redemption in the case of total and permanent incapacity. 'Thereafter the weekly payments continued until they approached the maximum limit of compensation provided by s. 13 (1) of the Act, namely £2,350. B. was then requested pursuant to s. 19 (1) of the Act to submit himself for medical examination by a medical board, which certified that B. at that time was incapacitated by injury to the extent of seventy per cent of total incapacity at his employment at the date of the injury and seventy per cent of total incapacity in the general labour market. The board further certified that B. was fit to undertake work not involving heavy lifting or much stooping. Section 19 (4) of the Act provides (inter alia) that the certificate given by a medical board is conclusive evidence as to the matters certified therein. The maximum limit of compensation having been reached, the commissioner stopped the weekly payments as from 26th July 1956 upon the basis that B. was by the certificate of the medical board-shown to be not totally and permanently incapacitated. B. appealed against the stoppage of compensation payments to a local court in Western Australia, which dismissed the appeal upon the ground that he was not an "' odd lot"