HUGHES v MINISTER FOR HEALTH in his capacity as Board of East Pilbara Health Service

[1999] WASCA 131

Western Australia Court of Appeal

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Limitation of Actions
2. › Personal injuries
3. › Extension of time
4. › Leave to commence action
5. › Mistake or other reasonable cause
6. › Change of solicitors revealing new causes of action
7. › Whether discovery of new potential claims after review of records constitutes reasonable cause
8. › Limitation Act 1935 (WA), s 47A(3)(b)
1. Limitation of Actions
2. › Personal injuries
3. › Extension of time
4. › Prejudice to defendant
5. › Onus of proof
6. › Whether mere submission without evidence sufficient to establish material prejudice
7. › Limitation Act 1935 (WA), s 47A(3)(b)
1. Limitation of Actions
2. › Personal injuries
3. › Extension of time
4. › Discretion to grant leave
5. › Whether proposed causes of action speculative
6. › Presumptive inference of causation
7. › Whether failure to take precautions materially increased risk of injury
8. › Limitation Act 1935 (WA), s 47A(3)(b)
1. Tort Law
2. › Negligence
3. › Causation
4. › Material contribution
5. › Failure to take precautions increasing risk of injury
6. › Presumptive inference of causation from sequence of events
7. › Whether increase in risk sufficient basis for inference of material contribution

Quick Take

Where a change of solicitors leads to a review of records that reveals new potential causes of action not previously identified, this constitutes 'reasonable cause' for delay under s 47A(3)(b) of the Limitation Act 1935 (WA) without the need to establish oversight or negligence by the original solicitors. A defendant seeking to resist an extension of time on the basis of material prejudice must adduce evidence of that prejudice; mere submissions as to 'obvious and logical prejudice' from the effluxion of time are insufficient.