RG LEVERMENT v DIRECTOR GENERAL OF EDUCATION [1992] NSWCA 133

RG LEVERMENT v DIRECTOR GENERAL OF EDUCATION

SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COURT OF APPEAL

MAHONEY, HANDLEY and SHELLER JJA 28 February 1992, 28 February 1992 [1992] NSWCA 133

WORKERS COMPENSATION — CAUSATION — worker sustained two injuries to back — one work related the other not — incapacity — causation a question of fact. A teacher employed by the Department sustained a back injury at work. Some time later, while employed as a teacher in the Solomon Islands he sustained a further back injury while lifting a heavy object. He claimed compensation from the Department on the basis that his incapacity following the second injury was the result of the first injury. The Compensation Court held that the incapacity was the result of the second injury and made an award for the respondent. At the relevant time an appeal lay to the Court of Appeal only if a question of law or evidence was involved. The judge of the Compensation Court decided the question of causation as one of fact on the evidence. HELD: No error of law had been established and the

appeal was dismissed.

Mahoney JA I shall ask Handley JA to give the first judgment.

Handley JA This is an appeal by an applicant from a decision of his Honour Judge Gibson of the Compensation Court who made an award for the respondent.

The essential facts are that in the course of his employment with the respondent, the appellant, a manual arts teacher, sustained a back injury on 16 November 1979. Thereafter the appellant continued to suffer back pain, weakness and disability from time to time over the years until he took leave of absence from the Department on 2 September 1985 in order to take up employment under a two year contract with the Solomon Islands College of Higher Education. In the period of some six years during which the appellant had remained with the Department after the back injury of 16 November 1979 he had, from time to time, lost days from work because of the condition of his back. However by and large he had been able to remain at work albeit with some difficulty and with some pain.