Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004

For the purposes of this Act, the death of a person is a service death if one or more of the following apply:

the death resulted from an occurrence that happened while the person was a member rendering defence service;

the death arose out of, or was attributable to, any defence service rendered by the person while a member;

in the opinion of the Commission, the death was due to:

an accident that would not have occurred; or

a disease that would not have been contracted;

the person having rendered defence service while a member; or

changes in the person’s environment consequent upon his or her having rendered defence service while a member;

the injury or disease from which the person died:

was sustained or contracted while the person was a member rendering defence service, but did not arise out of that service; or

was sustained or contracted before the commencement of a period of defence service rendered by the person while a member, but not while the person was rendering defence service;

the injury or disease from which the person died is an injury or disease that has been determined under section 27, 29 or 30 to be a service injury or a service disease, as the case may be;

The effect of this paragraph is that, if the person has died from an injury or disease that has already been determined by the Commission to be a service injury or disease, the death is a service death. Accordingly, the Commission is not required to relate the death to defence service rendered by the person and sections 338 and 339 do not apply.

This paragraph does not apply to certain aggravations etc. of injuries and diseases (see subsection (2)).

the death occurred while the person was on duty as a member, whether or not as a result of performing that duty;

the death resulted from an accident that occurred while the person was travelling, while a member rendering peacetime service but otherwise than in the course of duty, on a journey:

to a place for the purpose of performing duty; or

away from a place of duty upon having ceased to perform duty.

Sections 338 and 339 do not apply to a death that is covered by subparagraph (c)(i) or paragraph (ea) or (f) of this subsection.

Paragraph (1)(e) does not apply if:

the service injury or disease mentioned in that paragraph is an aggravated injury or disease; and

immediately before the death, the injury or disease was no longer aggravated or contributed to in a material degree.