Kandos Coomber Colliery Co Ltd v Bromwich [1948] HCA 43

High Court of Australia Latham C.J. Rich, Starke, Dixon, and Williams JJ. Kandos Coomber Colliery Co Ltd v Bromwich [1948] HCA 43

ORDER Appeal allowed with costs. Order of Supreme Court discharged. In lieu thereof second question in case stated answered Yes. Other questions not answered. Respondent to pay costs of appellant before the Commission and the Supreme Court.

Cur. adv. vult.

The following written judgments were delivered:—

Dec. 14 Latham C.J.

This is an appeal from a decision of the Full Court of the Supreme Court upon a case stated by the Workers' Compensation Commission of New South Wales under s. 37 of the Workers' Compensation Act 1926-1947 N.S.W.. The Commission made an award for compensation in favour of the respondent Henry Edward Charles Bromwich under which his employer, the appellant company, was ordered to pay weekly compensation at the rate of £2 per week from 13th February 1945. The award recited that the Commission found that:—"(a) the applicant suffers incapacity for work from two causes—(i) pulmonary fibrosis due to the inhalation of dusts to which his coal mining employment with the respondent exposed him, and which causes him partial (33⅓%) incapacity for work; (ii) cardio-vascular degeneration which causes him total incapacity for work, and which has no causal connection with his employment; (b) the applicant was affected by the conditions (a) (i) and (ii) simultaneously, and is entitled to compensation in respect of his capacity for work resulting from the condition (a) (i)." The case stated does not raise the question whether there was evidence to support the findings of the Commission. The questions asked in the case in substance inquire whether upon the basis of the findings of fact of the Commission the Commission was right in making an award in favour of the applicant. The applicant was examined by a medical board (see s. 51 of the Act) and the Board gave a certificate on 7th May 1947 in the following terms:—"The finding of the Medical Board is that there is a partially (33⅓%) incapacitating pulmonary fibrosis probably due to inhalation of mixed dusts. There is a totally incapacitating cardio-vascular degeneration."