Ajinvan P/L v Laurie Fry

(2001) 3 VR 644; [2001] VSCA 148

Victorian Court of Appeal

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Workers' Compensation
2. › Entitlement to weekly payments
3. › Payments after 104 weeks
4. › Requirement of 'serious injury' or 'totally and permanently incapacitated'
5. › Effect of binding medical panel opinion
6. › Whether finding of total and permanent incapacity inconsistent with medical panel opinion of partial and permanent incapacity
7. › Accident Compensation Act 1985 (Vic), ss 68(4), 93B(3)
1. Workers' Compensation
2. › Statutory construction
3. › Meaning of 'totally and permanently incapacitated'
4. › Whether 'totally' and 'permanently' both qualify the same incapacity
5. › Accident Compensation Act 1985 (Vic), s 93B(3)(b)
1. Workers' Compensation
2. › Medical panels
3. › Binding effect of medical panel opinion
4. › Temporal scope of opinion expressed in present tense
5. › Whether opinion confined to date of expression
6. › Accident Compensation Act 1985 (Vic), s 68(4)

Quick Take

A medical panel opinion of partial and permanent incapacity precludes a court from finding total and permanent incapacity at any earlier date where there is no intervening event or change in circumstances of significance. The phrase 'totally and permanently incapacitated' in s.93B(3)(b) of the Accident Compensation Act 1985 (Vic) means a total incapacity which is permanent, not a combination of total incapacity in one respect and permanent incapacity in another.