Swartz v Commonwealth [1959] HCA 28

High Court of Australia Dixon C.J. Kitto and Windeyer JJ. Swartz v Commonwealth [1959] HCA 28

ORDER Appeal and application for special leave to appeal dismissed with costs.

Cur. adv. vult.

The Court delivered the following written judgment:—

June 25 Dixon C.J., Kitto and Windeyer JJ.

William Henry Swartz, describing himself as an exempt lift driver of the Postmaster-General's Department, appealed to the Magistrates Court of Queensland at Brisbane against a determination made on 10th March 1958 by the Delegate for the Commissioner for Employees' Compensation under the Commonwealth Employees' Compensation Act 1930-1956. The Magistrates Court falls within the definition of the expression "County Court" employed in that Act and defined in s. 4 (1). Section 20 provides that any person affected by any determination or action of the Commissioner under the Act may within a given time appeal to a county court against the determination or action and the court shall have jurisdiction to hear and determine the appeal, and such appeal may be in the nature of a re-hearing. It was pursuant to this provision that Swartz appealed.

He had complained that on 10th September 1953 personal injury by accident arising out of or in the course of his employment by the Commonwealth was caused to him. The determination of 10th March 1958 against which Swartz appealed stated in terms that Swartz had sustained personal injury by accident arising out of or in the course of his employment by the Commonwealth on 10th September 1953, namely, hypertensive carditis with angina. But the determination went on in a separate paragraph to say that the incapacity for work resulting from Swartz's injury on 10th September 1953 ceased to exist on 7th March 1958 (that is three days before the date of the determination) and that thereupon Swartz ceased to be entitled to weekly payments of compensation under the Act. Swartz appealed from the determination within due time to the Magistrates Court. One may suppose that he intended to appeal against the second paragraph of the determination, that bringing weekly payments to an end, and not against the first, which declared that he suffered from hypertensive carditis with angina and that it amounted to personal injury by accident arising out of or in the course of his employment. But in fact the appeal was from the whole determination. The appeal eventually came on for hearing before the Magistrates Court on 16th February 1959.