James Hardie & Co Pty Limited v Wootton

James Hardie & Co Pty Limited sought special leave to appeal from a decision of the New South Wales Court of Appeal. The dispute concerned the interpretation of amendments to the New South Wales Limitation Act 1969, specifically in relation to extending limitation periods for personal injury claims. The respondent, Victor Neville Wootton, had successfully obtained an order for an extended limitation period from the Dust Diseases Tribunal, a decision upheld by the Court of Appeal.

The central legal issue before the High Court was whether, in cases falling within a transitional provision of the 1990 Amendment Act, a court was required to consider the qualifying provisions of section 60I of the Act when determining an application to extend a limitation period under section 60G. The applicant argued that the Dust Diseases Tribunal and the Court of Appeal had erred by considering only the "just and reasonable" test in section 60G(2) and not the factors outlined in section 60I.

The applicant contended that section 60I, which sets out specific factors to be considered when determining whether to extend a limitation period, should have been applied to the respondent's case, even though the application was made within the transitional period. The High Court was asked to determine if section 60I was implicitly imported into the transitional provisions, specifically clause 4(4)(b) of Schedule 5 of the Amendment Act, thereby requiring consideration of its qualifying factors. The Court was also presented with background information on the revised limitation scheme, including the introduction of section 18A and the preservation of older provisions for causes of action accruing before the amendments.