J C Equipment Hire Pty Ltd v The Registrar of the Workers Compensation Commission of NSW

(2008) 70 NSWLR 704; [2008] NSWCA 43

NSW Court of Appeal

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Workers Compensation
2. › Lump sum compensation
3. › Permanent impairment
4. › Whole person impairment
5. › Whether acceptance of degree of impairment for s 66 claim constitutes acceptance for work injury damages threshold
6. › Dichotomy between statutory compensation and work injury damages
7. › Workers Compensation Act 1987 (NSW), ss 66, 151H(1)
8. › Workplace Injury Management and Workers Compensation Act 1998 (NSW), ss 281(2B), 313, 314
1. Estoppel
2. › Estoppel by convention
3. › Whether party estopped from denying degree of whole person impairment in respect of one claim when agreed in respect of another
4. › Scope of conventional basis of transaction
1. Workers Compensation
2. › Work injury damages
3. › Pre-filing statement
4. › Threshold dispute
5. › Whether pre-filing statement defective
6. › Workplace Injury Management and Workers Compensation Act 1998 (NSW), ss 313, 314, 315, 317(2)

Quick Take

An employer's acceptance of a degree of whole person impairment for the purpose of s 66 lump sum compensation does not constitute acceptance for the purpose of the work injury damages threshold under s 314(2)(a) of the WIM Act. A separate, positive notification under s 281(2B) is required in response to a claim for work injury damages. Estoppel by convention cannot extend an acceptance made for one statutory purpose to a different statutory purpose where the conventional basis was confined to the first purpose.