Redenbach and Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered a dispute between the Applicant and the Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation concerning the Applicant's classification for an invalidity benefit under the Defence Force Retirement and Death Benefits (DFRDB) Act. The Applicant, discharged from the Army in 1987 due to pes planus and left knee posttraumatic osteoarthritis, sought a review of the Corporation's decision classifying him as "Class C" with an incapacity percentage of less than 30%.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was to determine the Applicant's percentage of incapacity for civil employment as at 20 September 1987, the day after his discharge. This determination required the Tribunal to have regard to specific matters outlined in section 30(2) of the DFRDB Act, namely the member's vocational skills, qualifications, and experience; the kinds of civil employment reasonably available to a person with those attributes; and the degree to which the physical impairment diminished the capacity to undertake such employment.

The Tribunal acknowledged the difficulty in retrospectively assessing incapacity and emphasised that post-retirement employment history could only be considered to shed light on the applicant's condition at the time of discharge. Applying the factors in section 30(2), the Tribunal considered the Applicant's vocational skills, qualifications, and experience, including his Army service as an Infantry Rifleman, Section Commander, and Instructor, as well as his prior civilian employment. After a value judgment, taking into account the varying degrees of incapacity, the Tribunal determined the Applicant's overall incapacity for civil employment as at September 1987 to be 10 percent.

Consequently, the Tribunal affirmed the decision under review, which classified the Applicant as "Class C" with a 10 percent incapacity from 20 September 1987.