Important Compensation Riling

Northern Advocate, 19 July 1938, Page 9

Important Compensation Riling

[Per Press Association. —Gopyrif/nt.l WELLINGTON. This Day. The Court of Appeal yesterday delivered judgment in the case in which the question was asked whether the certificate of a medical committee appointed pursuant to the Workers Compensation Amendment Act. 1936. is binding and conclusive on the Arbitration Court. The case was stated for opinion by the Arbitration Court in the action of Edward James Ashby, of Wellington, waterside worker, against the Shaw. Savill and Albion Co.. Ltd. Facts of The Case. When working for the defendant company an 1937, plaintiff was struck on the chest and injured by a fallingtrestle. Having made a claim for compensation, he submitted himself in September, 1937. to examination by the Wellington District Medical Committee. The committee’s finding and certificate were to the effect that plaintiff had recevored 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 Court to which the defendant pleaded that the certificate of the committee was conclusive evidence that the plaintiff had recovered wholly from the accident, and that the court had no jurisdiction to consider the claim. These points were reserved for the Court of Appeal. The Appeal Court held that the certificate of the medical committee given pursuant of Section 9 of the Workers’ Compensation Amendment Act, 1936, is binding and conclusive on the Court of Arbitration. Opinion of the Court. The Chief Justice, Sir Michael Myers, in his judgment, in which Mr Justice Blair and Mr Justice Fair concurred, said: “I think that reading the certificate as a whole it,necessarily means that the employment accident had no material effect on the causation of plaintiff’s condition as it existed at the time of the examination.

“The certificate is by Statute made conclusive as to the fact so certified, and the result is that as far as plaintiff’s injuries by accident are concerned, his unfitness for work had disappeared, and that his present unfitness is a matter for which the employer is not liable. On this view the certificate is a complete answer to plaintiff’s action, and the defendant cannot be required by the Court of Arbitration to make any further payment of compensation as from the date of the certificate.”