Kozarov v. State of Victoria
Case No.
M36/2021
Case Information
Lower Court Judgment
24/11/2020 Supreme Court of Victoria (Court of Appeal) (Beach, Kaye JJA & Macaulay J)
[2020] VSCA 301 ; [2020] VSCA 316
Catchwords
Torts – Negligence – Causation – Where applicant worked in Serious Sex Offenders Unit (SSOU) of Office of Public Prosecutions (OPP) – Where work in SSOU required applicant to deal with confronting material of graphic sexual nature – Where, on 11 August 2011, applicant took sick leave for symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) but was not diagnosed and returned to work on 29 August 2011 – Where, on return, applicant was involved in dispute with manager and stated she did not wish to be rotated to different unit within OPP – Where, on 9 February 2012, applicant emailed manager requesting she be rotated out of SSOU due to effect of SSOU work on her health, but request was not actioned – Where primary judge held respondent was put on notice as to risks to applicant’s health in August 2011 – Where primary judge made inference that timely welfare enquiry by respondent would have revealed applicant’s PTSD and, if applicant had been made aware of her condition, she would have consented to be rotated out of SSOU – Where primary judge held respondent failed to discharge duty of care in August 2011 by not making welfare enquiry and not rotating applicant out of SSOU – Where Court of Appeal overturned primary judge’s inference that applicant would have consented to be rotated out and held that applicant’s own actions in not consenting to be rotated out caused injury rather than respondent’s actions – Where Court of Appeal did not address primary judge’s finding that return to work after February 2012 caused applicant injury – Where Court of Appeal allowed respondent’s appeal – Whether open to Court of Appeal to overturn primary judge’s finding that if duty of care had been discharged in August 2011, applicant would have consented to be rotated out of SSOU – Whether Court of Appeal erred in failing to consider injury caused by return to work after February 2012.
Documents*
21/05/2021 Hearing (SLA, Canberra)
04/06/2021 Notice of appeal
09/07/2021 Written submissions (Appellant)
09/07/2021 Chronology (Appellant)
06/08/2021 Written submissions (Respondent)
27/08/2021 Reply
02/12/2021 Hearing (Full Court, Canberra) (Audio-visual recording)
02/12/2021 Outline of oral argument (Appellant)
02/12/2021 Outline of oral argument (Respondent)
13/04/2022 Judgment (Judgment summary)