MAYNE NICKLESS LTD and ORS v ROJAS and ORS [1994] NSWCA 198

MAYNE NICKLESS LTD v ROJAS

SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COURT OF APPEAL

KIRBY P, PRIESTLEY and MEAGHER JJA 11 February 1994, 29 March 1994

[1994] NSWCA 198

WORKERS' COMPENSATION — multiple injuries — apportionment between employers/insurers — question of fact — judge believes worker — apportionment 70% attributable to primary injury — held: No error — award upheld.

JUDGES — reasons — duty to provide — held: Reasons for award sufficiently provide grounds.

WORKERS' COMPENSATION — multiple injuries — apportionment as between successive injuries at times when the employer was differently constituted and insured — judge apportions 70% of responsibility to the first employer in whose employ the worker first sustained injury to back — that employer complains that subsequent injuries should bear larger share of the apportionment — argues that worker continued to work after first injury so that his incapacity did not "result from" such injury but from later injuries — held: (dismissing the appeal from the award entered by Moran CC)J): (1) It was open to the primary judge to accept, as he did, the truthfulness of the worker's testimony that the first incident had initiated his back pain which continued thereafter and was suppressed only by the use of painkillers; (2) Upon that footing, the award entered was not shown to be wrong and would not be disturbed by the Court of Appeal. Pickersgill v Freightbases Pty Ltd [1983] 3 NSWLR 117 (CA) and March v E & MN Stramare Pty Ltd (1991) 171 CLR 506 considered.

JUDGES — reasons — obligation to provide — workers' compensation award — whether compensation judge gave adequate reasons — held: The judge adequately stated the grounds for his decision. Soulemezis v Dudley (Holdings) Pty Ltd (1987) 10 NSWLR 247 (CA) applied.

Workers Compensation Act 1987, s22