COMPENSATION that set a legal precedent after the death of Hunter Quarries worker Ryan Messenger has been overturned by the NSW Court of Appeal.
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Hunter Quarries has won its appeal against having to pay permanent impairment compensation to Mr Messenger’s estate in addition to death benefits.
The NSW Court of Appeal today found the Workers Compensation Commission Appeal Panel made an error in law in 2017 that led to a decision that both benefits were payable, despite Mr Messenger only living for nine minutes after he was crushed by an earth moving excavator in September, 2014.
Hunter Quarries appealed against a Supreme Court judge’s decision in late 2017 that confirmed the appeal panel’s decision.
But five judges of the NSW Court of Appeal overturned the decision in a ruling today.
Acting Court of Appeal Justice Carolyn Simpson said the purpose of permanent impairment compensation was to compensate an injured worker for the loss of quality of life caused by a workplace injury, for the duration of their life.
It was not “sensible or reasonable” to award compensation to a person whose life was “so circumscribed”, as it was in Mr Messenger’s case, and who had “no awareness or consciousness of the loss of quality of life”, Justice Simpson said.
Mr Messenger was 25 and newly married when he started working at Hunter Quarries where his father was also an employee.
His wife Alexandra, who was widowed at the age of 23, received death benefits from his estate after Hunter Quarries accepted liability for the payment as a workplace death.
In 2015 Mr Messenger’s estate appealed to the Workers Compensation Commission Appeal Panel for permanent impairment benefits after a medical determination that Mr Messenger would have suffered 100 per cent permanent impairment if he had lived.
After a series of challenges the Appeal Panel confirmed the decision that permanent impairment benefits should be paid to Mr Messenger’s estate. The Court of Appeal overturned the decision.
The 2017 decision that both benefits were payable, even though Mr Messenger only lived nine minutes before his death, was described by his estate’s lawyers as a decision that opened the door to additional compensation in such cases, which had “enormous implications” for workers.
His lawyers said NSW government changes to workers compensation law had made it difficult to make claims for permanent impairment after 2002.
Hunter Quarries and Mr Messenger’s estate were ordered to pay their own costs for the Court of Appeal matter.
