STUBBS v VICTIMS COMPENSATION FUND CORPOPRATION [1996] NSWCA 507

STUBBS v VICTIMS COMPENSATION FUND CORPOPRATION SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES — COURT OF APPEAL

CLARKE JA, GILES AJA and ABADEE AJA 24 October 1996

[1996] NSWCA 507

Administrative Law — Refusal by Victims Compensation Tribunal to extend time — Appeal to District Court — Whether claimant was denied procedural fairness — Judicial silence — Whether reasonable apprehension of bias arising from question asked of counsel by trial judge.

Clarke JA. I will ask Abadee AJA to give the first judgment.

Abadee AJA. The claimant, by summons, seeks an order in the nature of certiori to remove into this Court the record of proceedings in the District Court heard on 7 and 8 November 1995 before Downs DCJ, with judgment being delivered on 8 November 1995, and for an order quashing the judgment and the order made.

The claimant also seeks a declaration that Downs DCJ when entertaining an appeal under s 29 of the Victims Compensation Act ('the Act') erred in law in a number of respects thereby denying theclaimant procedural fairness, and that his Honour conducted the proceedings in such a way as to give rise to a reasonable apprehension of bias against her.

THE FACTUAL CIRCUMSTANCES

The application arises out of an appeal by the complainant under s 29 of the Victims Compensation Act against a decision of the Victims Compensation Tribunal ('the Tribunal').

I now turn to consider the factual matters. On 15 September 1994 a claim was lodged on the applicant's behalf under the Act. This was accompanied by an application for leave to bring her claim for compensation out of time. The claimant (date of birth 19 September 1969) claimed that when she was aged nine and ten years she had been sexually assaulted by her father during a period in the latter half of 1978. She alleged that in consequence of these sexual offences she has suffered trauma and related psychological dysfunction.