Learmont v Commissioner of Police

The appeal concerned an application for a gratuity under s 12D of the *Police Regulation (Superannuation) Act 1906* (NSW). The applicant, Learmont, sought to challenge the decision of the primary judge who had dismissed his application for judicial review. The Commissioner of Police was the respondent.

The central legal issues before the Court of Appeal were whether the trial judge had erred by focusing on the pathological consequences of the applicant's injury rather than the injury itself, whether the identification of the "injury to which the claim relates" was a question of fact or law, and whether the judge's application of his own medical knowledge constituted a denial of procedural fairness.

The Court of Appeal held that the trial judge had correctly identified the relevant injury and that the question of what constituted the "injury to which the claim relates" was a question of fact. The Court found no error in the judge's approach, concluding that he had not impermissibly applied his own medical knowledge in a manner that denied procedural fairness. The appeal and the summons were therefore dismissed.