Under s 93D of the Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 1981 (WA) (since repealed), a worker's common law cause of action in negligence against an employer was effectively extinguished upon the worker's death from causes unrelated to the work injury, because the statutory definition of 'future pecuniary loss' made it impossible for the estate to satisfy the serious disability threshold. The Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1941 (WA) s 4 does not preserve a cause of action that has been extinguished by operation of a special statutory regime.
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