Rail Corporation NSW v Joape Tuwai [2008] NSWSC 676

New South Wales Supreme Court

CITATION : Rail Corporation NSW v Joape Tuwai [2008] NSWSC 676

HEARING DATE(S) : 17 June 2008

JUDGMENT DATE : 4 July 2008

JUDGMENT OF : Gzell J

DECISION : Summons dismissed with costs.

CATCHWORDS : WORKERS COMPENSATION - Proceedings to obtain compensation - Declaratory relief - Proceedings for compensation before Workers Compensation Commission constituted by an arbitrator - Appeal lodged to Presidential member to decide on the papers - Parties reach compromise and execute short minutes of order - Presidential member decides appeal awarding compensation different from the short minutes of order - Commission has no record of having received short minutes of order or being informed that the dispute was settled - Declaration sought that parties bound by short minutes of order and appeal decision void - No dispute that parties bound but not as to future rights - Whether no good purpose served by making the first declaration - Whether inference should be drawn that registration clerk carried out instructions and filed short minutes of order - Whether under the procedural tables to the Workers Compensation Commission Rules 2006, PT 4.147 there was finalisation of Commission proceedings by filing the short minutes of order - Whether under the Workers Compensation Commission Rules, r 15.9 there was finalisation in the absence of an order of the Commission in terms of the short minutes of order - Whether the privative provision in the Workplace Injury Management and Workers Compensation Act 1998, s 350(1) prevented the Court making the second declaration - Whether the principles in R v Hickman - Ex parte Fox v Clinton (1945) 70 CLR 598 at 615 satisfied - Whether the plaintiff may ask the Commission to rescind the decision on appeal under s 350(3).