Small and Comcare (Compensation)

This matter concerned an appeal by Ms. Small against decisions made by Comcare regarding her workers' compensation claim. The dispute centred on whether a fall from a horse on 24 March 2009 constituted an injury that caused her subsequent incapacity and required medical treatment, specifically concerning an L4/L5 disc injury. The case was heard by Mr. S. Webb, Member, of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

The primary legal issues before the Tribunal were to determine whether Ms. Small suffered an injury to her L4/L5 disc as a result of the fall on 24 March 2009, and if so, whether this injury caused her subsequent incapacity and the need for medical treatment. The Tribunal also had to consider whether any subsequent events broke the chain of causation between the initial injury and her ongoing condition.

The Tribunal reasoned that while Ms. Small had a pre-existing, asymptomatic spondylolisthesis at the L5/S1 level, the fall on 24 March 2009 likely caused physiological changes to her L4/L5 disc, specifically an internal disc disruption. The Tribunal found that this injury did not resolve and continued to cause incapacity and necessitate medical treatment. It further held that a subsequent event on 18 May 2011, which probably resulted in a disc protrusion, did not break the chain of causation from the original 2009 injury.

The Tribunal set aside the reconsideration decision in application 2016/2522, reinstating the determinations revoked by that decision. Ms. Small's low back injury was properly described as an internal disc disruption to the L4/L5 disc. The matter was remitted to Comcare to determine Ms. Small's compensation entitlements under sections 16 and 19 of the *Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988*. The reconsideration decisions in applications 2016/3803 and 2017/3099 were affirmed.