Case M176/2010

Maurice Blackburn Cashman v. Brown

Case No.

M176/2010

Case Information

Lower Court Judgment

25/08/2010 Supreme Court of Victoria (Court of Appeal)(Ashley & Mandie JJA & Ross AJA)

[2010] VSCA 206

Catchwords

Damages — Statutory constraint on action for damages — Respondent former employee of applicant — Respondent made claim pursuant to Accident Compensation Act 1985 (Vic) (“the Act”) for statutory compensation for non-economic loss arising from psychological injury suffered as result of actions of fellow employee — Victorian WorkCover Authority (“WorkCover”) accepted respondent had psychological injury arising out of employment with applicant — WorkCover referred medical questions to Medical Panel for opinion under s 67 of the Act — Medical Panel certified respondent had 30% permanent psychiatric impairment resulting from accepted injury — Respondent deemed by Act to have suffered “serious injury” and permitted to commence common law proceedings for damages as result — Proceedings commenced in County Court of Victoria — Applicant’s pleadings in defence contested causation and injury — Respondent pleaded in reply that applicant estopped from making assertion inconsistent with Medical Panel opinion — Whether defendant’s right to contest common law damages claims subject to the Act compromised by Medical Board opinion — Whether Medical Board opinion gives rise to issue estoppel for purposes of common law damages proceeding.

Short Particulars

Documents

10/12/2010 Hearing (SLA, Melbourne)

21/12/2010 Notice of appeal

01/02/2011 Written submissions (Appellant)

01/02/2011 Chronology

15/02/2011 Written submissions (Respondent)

22/02/2011 Reply

21/03/2011 Supplementary written submissions (Appellant)

03/05/2011 Hearing (Full Court, Canberra)

22/06/2011 Judgment  (Judgment summary)