The District Court held that an unbroken chain of causation existed between the deceased worker's right knee injury sustained on 15 June 2015 in the course of employment and his death on 6 October 2022 during surgery, notwithstanding an intervening fall at a veterinary clinic on 28 September 2022. The fall did not break the chain of causation because the worker's vulnerability to falling was itself a consequence of the instability caused by the work injury and subsequent knee replacement surgeries (second Oakley category). On the cause of death, the Court preferred the evidence of Dr Gill and Dr Myers that the death was due to a primary cardiac event rather than pulmonary embolism as certified by the coroner, but found this distinction did not affect the causation analysis. The plaintiff widow was awarded the s 25 death benefit of $871,200 and lump sum compensation under s 66 for 40% loss of efficient use of each leg at or above the knee.
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