Tanks v WorkCover Queensland

[2001] QCA 103

Queensland Court of Appeal

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Limitation of Actions
2. › Accrual of cause of action
3. › Personal injury
4. › Statutory preconditions to commencing proceedings
5. › Whether cause of action accrues at time of injury or upon compliance with statutory entitlement conditions
6. › Limitation of Actions Act 1974 (Qld), s 11
7. › WorkCover Queensland Act 1996 (Qld), ss 252(2), 253
1. Industrial Law
2. › Workers' compensation
3. › Queensland
4. › Access to damages
5. › Entitlement conditions
6. › Whether WorkCover Queensland Act 1996 abolishes common law cause of action or merely regulates access to damages
7. › WorkCover Queensland Act 1996 (Qld), ss 11(1), 50(2), 252(2), 253, 262, 265, 280, 302, 306, 308
1. Statutes
2. › Interpretation
3. › Provisions declared to be substantive law
4. › Effect of declaration that provisions are substantive law
5. › Whether substantive law provisions extinguish cause of action or merely suspend right to sue
6. › WorkCover Queensland Act 1996 (Qld), s 252(2)

Quick Take

For the purposes of the Limitation of Actions Act 1974 (Qld), the cause of action for damages for personal injuries sustained by a worker accrues at the time of injury, not upon compliance with the entitlement conditions in Chapter 5 of the WorkCover Queensland Act 1996. The Act does not abolish the common law cause of action but suspends the right to commence proceedings until the statutory preconditions are met. Bonser v Melnacis is to be understood as holding only that the entitlement to commence proceedings (not the cause of action itself) is abolished where the statutory requirements are not complied with.