DOYLES SEAFOODS PTY LTD v PRCHLIK [1995] NSWCA 130

DOYLES SEAFOODS PTY LTD v PRCHLIK

SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COURT OF APPEAL

PRIESTLEY, CLARKE and MEAGHER JJA 5 September 1995, 5 September 1995

[1995] NSWCA 130

WORKERS COMPENSATION ACT 1987 s26 — APPEAL ON FACT — SUFFICIENCY OF REASONS FOR DECISION — trial judge awards amount pursuant to s26 — employer appeals — Held: 1. on the whole of the evidence, the amount awarded by the judge was reasonable and well within the available range; 2. there was enough said by the judge to indicate the reasoning process adopted by his Honour — at any rate, where judge gives insufficient reasons the court would not order a new-trial where it would simply be a futility to do so because the same result would very likely be arrived at.

ORDERS

Appeal dismissed with costs.

Priestley JA We have formed a clear view in this case that the appeal should be dismissed.

The case can be dealt with in fairly general terms as it was, in large degree, before the trial judge, the late Judge Gibson, in the Compensation Court. The claim made was by the dependants of a young man who died at the age of seventeen while in the employ of the appellant.

There was a contest before the trial judge on a number of matters, but in the appeal the number was reduced. It was not contested in the appeal that there was evidence upon which the judge was entitled to find that the parents of the deceased were dependent within the meaning of s26 of the Workers' Compensation Act 1987 upon their son. The trial judge awarded an amount of $50,000 pursuant to that section.

The questions which the appellant argued in the court today were, in substance, two. It was submitted that, on the evidence, the judge should not - and indeed I think it was said could not - have come to the conclusion that the figure of $50,000 was appropriate. Secondly, it was said that the reasons which he gave for his decision were such that the appellant could not see how the $50,000 was arrived at.