STATE RAIL AUTHORITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES v VLASSIS [1994] NSWCA 298

STATE RAIL AUTHORITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES v VLASSIS SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COURT OF APPEAL

PRIESTLEY, SHELLER and POWELL JJA 1 August 1994

[1994] NSWCA 298

Priestley, Sheller and Powell JJA This is a case in which the State Rail Authority seeks leave to appeal against a decision of Registrar Doubleday of the Dust Diseases Tribunal. In his reasons for making an order for extension of time under the Limitation Act, the Registrar mentioned that for some time in the Tribunal, the view had been taken that pleural plaques of themselves are not disabling, are not compensable, so that if at some time in the future a disablement arises after a person has been diagnosed with pleural plaque, an action may then be commenced. The Registrar appears to have based his decision partly on this prevailing view of the Tribunal.

The State Rail Authority wishes to have that view pronounced on by this court. Because, from what we have been told, it appears that this question arises frequently in the Tribunal, it would seem desirable for the matter to be examined in a suitable case. However, the court has not been persuaded that in the present case this view was essential to the decision of the Registrar or that, quite apart from his taking that view into account in his decision, the decision would not have been the same in any event because of the particular circumstances relating to the opponent's application for an extension of time under the Limitation Act.

The materials before the court are not sufficient for the court to inform itself any more precisely than I have indicated in what has already been said. The position at the end of the application is simply that the court is not satisfied that this is an appropriate case for the granting of leave and we dismiss the application with costs.