Klein v Minister for Education

Statutes – Interpretation – Meaning and effect of s 175 of Workers' Compensation and Injury Management Act 1981 (WA) – Application to public authority – Section 175(1) deemed a principal who contracts with a contractor to be the employer of a worker employed by the contractor, and made principal jointly and severally liable to pay compensation for which contractor was liable to the worker – Section 175(3) provided that a principal was not liable unless work on which worker was employed at the time of disability was "directly a part or process in the trade or business of the principal" – Pt IV Div 2 contained provisions constraining awards of common law damages in actions for damages against a worker's employer brought independently of the Act – Minister contracted with company to provide security at schools – Appellant was employed as security guard by company – Appellant was injured while pursuing intruder at school – Appellant sued Minister as occupier of premises at which appellant injured – Whether s 175(1) deemed the Minister to be the appellant's employer – Whether work on which appellant was employed at time of injury was "directly a part or process in the trade or business" of Minister – Whether effect of deeming provision was to apply constraints on damages in Pt IV Div 2 to appellant's claim.

Practice and procedure – Grant of special leave to appeal – Whether matters of statutory interpretation arose without reconsideration of the law as stated in Hewitt v Benale Pty Ltd (2002) 27 WAR 91 – Whether special leave should be revoked – Relevance of common ground between the parties – Relevance of refusal by High Court to permit enlargement of grounds of appeal – Relevance of supervening amendment of the legislation – Relevance of duty to quell the controversy brought to the Court by the parties.

Words and phrases – "deemed employer", "directly", "directly a part or process in the trade or business of", "employee", "principal".

Workers' Compensation and Injury Management Act 1981 (WA) – Pt IV Div 2, ss 6, 175(1), 175(3), 175(7).

Interpretation Act 1984 (WA) – s 8.

Occupiers' Liability Act 1985 (WA) – s 5.

Workers Compensation for Accidents Act 1900 (NZ) – s 15.