WorkCover Queensland v AMACA Pty Limited

[2012] QCA 240

Queensland Court of Appeal

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Assignment
2. › Choses in action
3. › Causes of action in tort
4. › Personal injury claims
5. › Whether cause of action for damages for personal injury in negligence is capable of assignment
6. › Whether assignee had genuine commercial interest in enforcement of claim
7. › Whether assignment savoured of maintenance or champerty
1. Insurance
2. › Workers' compensation
3. › Insurer's right of recoupment
4. › Assignment of worker's cause of action to insurer
5. › Whether insurer's interest in recouping statutory compensation constitutes genuine commercial interest
6. › Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 (Qld), s 207B
1. Maintenance and Champerty
2. › Assignment of bare causes of action
3. › Exception for genuine commercial interest
4. › Whether exception extends to causes of action for personal injury
5. › Whether workers' compensation insurer's interest in recoupment removes assignment from category of bare causes of action

Quick Take

The common law rule that causes of action for personal injury in tort are not assignable is not absolute. A workers' compensation insurer that has paid statutory compensation to an injured worker has a genuine pre-existing commercial interest in recouping that compensation, sufficient to support a valid assignment of the worker's cause of action for personal injury against a third-party tortfeasor. The genuine commercial interest required to sustain such an assignment need not be an interest enforceable at law or in equity.