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)
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.
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)