CHAMAA v STANDARD TELEPHONES AND CABLES PTY LTD [1995] NSWCA 71

CHAMAA v STANDARD TELEPHONES AND CABLES PTY LTD

SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COURT OF APPEAL

CLARKE, MEAGHER and HANDLEY JJA 9 May 1995, 9 May 1995

[1995] NSWCA 71

WORKERS COMPENSATION — APPEAL — QUESTION OF LAW — NO QUESTION OF PRINCIPLE.

The trial Judge dismissed applications by a worker for compensation against two separate employers arising from alleged injuries in 1972 and 1973 because she was not satisfied that the worker had been incapacitated as a result of any such injury. On appeal which was limited to questions of law - Held: The appeal did not involve any questions of law and the appeal was dismissed with costs as incompetent.

ORDER

Appeal dismissed with costs.

Handley JA This is an appeal by a worker from a decision of her Honour Judge O'Toole who made the award in favour of the two employer respondents on 17 May, 1994.

It is a matter of some surprise to note that the application for determination was lodged in 1987 but the proceedings did not come on for trial in the Compensation Court until May 1994. It is even more remarkable when one appreciates that the injury relied on in the first application for determination was said to have been suffered in 1972 and the injury relied on in the second was said to have been suffered on 28 June, 1973.

The appeal to this Court is governed by s32 of the Compensation Court Act 1984 in its original form and is limited to questions of law.

Her Honour, in a short judgment, said that she was not certain whether the applicant's employment with STC caused or aggravated any back injury. She made that finding against a background of an earlier finding that the applicant conceded he was an unreliable historian for events going back to 1972, and that it is clear that he had been involved in other accidents apart from those the subject of these proceedings. Her final conclusion was that she was not persuaded that he was incapacitated by injuries sustained in the course of his employment with STC.