Carthew v Badger & Ors

The appeal in *Carthew v Badger & Ors* concerned an employee who sustained an injury while diving into a swimming pool. The central dispute revolved around whether the injury occurred in the course of or arose out of the employee's employment. The primary judge had favoured the evidence presented by the employer's witnesses over that of the employee. The appeal was brought on the grounds of alleged errors of law, specifically that the primary judge's reasons were inadequate.

The court was required to determine whether the primary judge's reasons for preferring the employer's evidence and rejecting the employee's evidence were legally insufficient. This involved considering whether the judge's failure to refer to specific parts of the employee's witnesses' testimony constituted an inadequacy, given that the judge had found their evidence generally unreliable. Furthermore, the court had to assess whether the judge's omission to mention a third-party report of the incident rendered the reasons inadequate.

The court held that it was open to the primary judge to find the employee's witnesses unreliable and to accept the employer's witnesses' evidence. The judges reasoned that if the overall evidence of a witness is found to be unreliable, then specific parts of that evidence do not need to be separately addressed to avoid a finding of inadequacy in the reasons. Regarding the third-party report, the court found that as it was consistent with the employer's witnesses' evidence and not so critical as to necessitate specific reference, its omission did not render the reasons inadequate. The appeal was therefore dismissed.