Ballas v Department of Education (State of NSW) [2020] NSWCA 86

Court of Appeal Supreme Court New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: Ballas v Department of Education (State of NSW) [2020] NSWCA 86 Hearing dates: 18 February 2020 Date of orders: 06 May 2020 Decision date: 06 May 2020 Before: Bell P and Payne JA at [1]; Emmett AJA at [134] Decision: 1. Appeal allowed with costs.

2. Leave to rely on ground 4 of the Notice of Contention refused.

3. Set aside the decision of the primary judge and, in lieu thereof:

(i) declare pursuant to s 69 of the Supreme Court Act 1970 (NSW) that the certificate and decision of the Third Defendant dated 17 July 2018 is void and of no effect;

(ii) order the decision issued by the Second Defendant, constituted by the Third Defendant on 17 July 2018 be set aside;

(iii) remit the matter back to the Second Defendant for referral to a different Delegate to determine the dispute according to law;

(iv) order the Certificate of Determination issued by the Fourth Defendant on 22 August 2018 be set aside;

(v) order the reconsideration determination made by the Fourth Defendant on 8 April 2020 be set aside; and

(vi) order that the First Respondent to pay the Appellant's costs of the proceedings before the primary judge. Catchwords: ADMINISTRATIVE LAW – judicial review – whether primary judge and Delegate of the Registrar of the Workers Compensation Commission misconstrued the role of the Registrar – whether Delegate's decision contained jurisdictional error – whether Delegate failed to consider that approved medical specialist took into account irrelevant considerations and failed to take into account relevant considerations – whether Delegate erred in deciding that which matters were relevant to the categories in the Psychiatric Impairment Rating Scale was a matter of discretion.