Interesting Legal Point

Northern Advocate, 9 July 1938, Page 6

Interesting Legal Point

[Per Press Association. Copyright. ] WELLINGTON, This Day. The question as to whether the certificate of a medical committee appointed pursuant to the Workers’ Compensation Amendment Act, 1936, is binding and conclusive on the Arbitration Court was considered in the Court of Appeal yesterday, upon a case stated for its opinion by the Arbitration Court, in the action of Edward James Ashby, of Wellington, waterside worker. against the Shaw, Savill and Albion Company, Ltd. When working for the defendant company in 1937, plaintiff was struck on the chest and injured by a falling trestle. Having made a claim for compensation, he submitted himself in September, 1937, to examination by the Wellington district medical committee. The committee’s findings and certificate were to the effect that plaintiff had recovered from the effects of the injury mentioned, but that he was unfit for work by reason of heart disease, which was not influenced or caused in any way by the accident. Defendant thereupon ceased the payment of compensation. Plaintiff, however. not being satisfied, brought an action in the Arbitration Coux't, to which the defendant pleaded that the certificate of the committee was conclusive evidence that plaintiff had fully recovered from the accident, and that the court had no jurisdiction to consider the claim. ’Those points were reserved for the Court of Appeal, which reserved its decision.