Walker v Wilson [1991] HCA 8

High Court of Australia Brennan, Deane, Dawson, Toohey and McHugh JJ. Walker v Wilson [1991] HCA 8

ORDER Appeal allowed with costs. Set aside the orders of the Full Court of the Supreme Court of Western Australia and in lieu thereof order that:

(1) the appeal to that Court be allowed with costs;

(2) the judgment of the Workers' Compensation Board of Western Australia given on 18 October 1988 be set aside;

(3) the matter be remitted to the Workers' Compensation Board of Western Australia for further determination according to law.

Cur. adv. vult.

The following written judgments were delivered:—

1991, 11 April Brennan J.

Section 19(1)(a) of the Workers' Compensation and Assistance Act 1981 W.A. deems a worker who suffers a personal injury in the circumstances therein set out "to have suffered personal injury by accident arising out of or in the course of his employment" and, on that account, to be entitled to compensation under the Act: s. 18 and the definitions of worker and disability in s. 5. Paragraph (a) of s. 19(1) relates to injuries suffered while travelling on the journeys therein specified. Its operation is not restricted to injuries suffered while travelling on a journey where the travel is or is in the course of the employment. The journeys to which par. (a) relates are described by reference to their termini. Sub-paragraph (i) relates to journeys between the worker's "place of residence and place of employment"; sub-par. (ii) is presently immaterial; sub-par. (iii) relates to journeys between the worker's camp or place of temporary residence and his place of residence when not in temporary residence. The first question that arises on this appeal is whether, in the circumstances described in the majority judgment, the appellant's parents' home in Perth is properly to be described as his "place of residence" for the purposes of sub-par. (i) or his "place of residence when not so temporarily residing" for the purposes of sub-par. (iii).