Waters v Commonwealth of Australia

The applicant, Waters, sought leave to appeal from a judgment of the Common Law Division of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, which had dismissed her claim for damages for injury arising in the course of her employment against the respondent, the Commonwealth of Australia. The core of the dispute concerned whether her claim for damages was extinguished by statute.

The Court of Appeal was required to determine whether the judgment below contained material errors. Specifically, it needed to consider whether the wrong statutory provision had been applied and, if so, whether there were prospects of a different outcome for the applicant had the correct provision been applied.

McColl and Basten JJA dismissed the application for leave to appeal. Their Honours found that any error in the application of a statutory provision was not material to the outcome of the case, meaning that even if the correct provision had been applied, the applicant's claim would still have been extinguished. Consequently, the applicant was ordered to pay the respondent's costs of the proceedings in the Court of Appeal.