Australian Meat Holdings Pty Ltd v Sayers

SUPREME COURT OF QUEENSLAND

CITATION:

Australian Meat Holdings Pty Ltd v Sayers [2007] QSC 390

PARTIES:

AUSTRALIAN MEAT HOLDINGS PTY LTD          ACN 011 062 338
(applicant)
v
CRAIG FREDERICK SAYERS

(respondent)

FILE NO/S:

BS8888 of 2007

DIVISION:

Trial

PROCEEDING:

Application

ORIGINATING COURT:

Supreme Court of Queensland

DELIVERED ON:

21 December 2007

DELIVERED AT:

Brisbane

HEARING DATE:

6 December 2007

JUDGE:

Daubney J

ORDER:

1. Pursuant to s 275(7) of the Workers Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 (Qld), the respondent provide to the applicant a signed authority to release information in the form required by Medicare Australia sufficient for that entity to disclose to the applicant all documents relating to the applicant for the period from 6 May 2002 to the present.

2. Conditional upon the respondent providing the applicant with the signed authority provided for in one above, it is declared that the respondent’s notice of claim for damages dated 8 January 2007 complies with s 275 of the Workers Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 (Qld).

3.   The respondent pay the applicant’s costs of and incidental to this application fixed in the sum of $4,000.00.

CATCHWORDS:

WORKERS’ COMPENSATION – PROCEEDINGS TO OBTAIN COMPENSATION – PRELIMINARY REQUIREMENTS – CLAIMS FOR COMPENSATION - where respondent made claim for damages for injury suffered at work with the applicant – where respondent has not signed notice of claim for damages enabling applicant to obtain medical information from Medicare – whether respondent obliged to sign authority

Health Insurance Act1973 (Cth) s 130
Motor Accident Insurance Act 1994 (Qld)

Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 (Qld) Ch 4 Pt 5, s 273, s 274 , s 275
Suncorp Metway Insurance Limited v Brown [2005] 1 Qd R 204, applied

COUNSEL:

T Entriken for the applicant
DC Rangiah for the respondent

SOLICITORS:

AK Compensation Lawyers for the applicant
Maurice Blackburn Cashman Solicitors for the respondent

1. DAUBNEY J: The Respondent, Mr Sayers, claims that on 6 May 2005 he suffered an injury to his back while employed by the Applicant (then known as Australian Meat Holdings Pty Ltd) at its Townsville meatworks.

1. On 16 January 2007, the Respondent served on the Applicant a ‘Notice of Claim for Damages’ for the purposes of s 275 of the Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 (Qld) (‘WCRA’). The Applicant is a self-insurer for the purposes of the WCRA.

1. By a letter dated 17 January 2007 to the Respondent, the Applicant raised a number of compliance issues in relation to the ‘Notice of Claim’.  The issues included the adequacy of the written authority given by the Respondent to enable the Applicant to obtain information, including copies of documents relevant to the claim, from inter alia, Medicare Australia (‘Medicare’).  Enclosed with that letter was, relevantly, a form of authority to Medicare for signing by the Respondent and return to the Applicant.  This was in Medicare’s ‘standard’ form of authority.

1. On 1 February 2007, the Respondent’s solicitors wrote to the Applicant, saying relevantly:

The written authority was executed precisely in compliance…