Elisha v. Vision Australia Limited
Case No.
M22/2024
Case Information
Lower Court Judgment
28/11/2023 Supreme Court of Victoria (Court of Appeal) (McLeish, Kennedy, Macaulay JJ)
[2023] VSCA 288 and [2023] VSCA 265
Catchwords
Damages – Contract – Breach – Psychiatric injury – Where appellant entered employment contract with respondent – Where during hotel stay while performing his work duties, appellant involved in incident with hotel proprietor – Where appellant's employment terminated for alleged "serious misconduct" – Where appellant developed major depressive disorder, which trial judge found caused by dismissal – Where appellant sued for damages, claiming alleged breaches of due process provision contained in clause 47.5 of Vision Australia Unified Enterprise Agreement 2013 and respondent's "disciplinary procedure" – Where appellant claimed respondent's duty of care extended to discipline and termination procedures – Where at trial, appellant succeeded in contract and failed in negligence – Where Court of Appeal held respondent did not owe alleged duty of care, and affirmed trial judge's finding in respect of contract claim – Whether Court of Appeal erred in concluding damages for psychiatric injury suffered by appellant not recoverable for breach of contract.
Tort – Negligence – Duty of care owed by employers – Whether Court of Appeal erred in concluding respondent did not owe duty to take reasonable care to avoid injury to appellant in its implementation of processes leading to and resulting in termination of his employment.
Documents*
07/03/2024 Determination
20/03/2024 Notice of appeal
22/04/2024 Written submissions (Appellant)
22/04/2024 Chronology (Appellant)
22/05/2024 Written submissions (Respondent)
12/06/2024 Reply
*The due dates shown for documents on this page are indicative only.