Yang v Topline Holdings Pty Ltd

WORKERS COMPENSATION COMMISSION
DETERMINATION OF APPEAL AGAINST A DECISION OF THE COMMISSION CONSTITUTED BY AN ARBITRATOR
CITATION:		Yang v Topline Holdings Pty Ltd [2010] NSWWCCPD 117
APPELLANT:		Sui Wen (Bill) Yang
RESPONDENT:		Topline Holdings Pty Limited t/as Topline Shower Screens & Wardrobe
INSURER:		GIO General Limited
FILE NUMBER:		WCC A1-2698/10
ARBITRATOR:	Ms D Moore
DATE OF ARBITRATOR’S DECISION:		14 July 2010
DATE OF APPEAL DECISION:		5 November 2010
SUBJECT MATTER OF DECISION:		Application to extend time to appeal; s 352(4) of the Workplace Injury Management and Workers Compensation Act 1998
PRESIDENTIAL MEMBER:		President Judge Keating
HEARING:		On the papers
REPRESENTATION:		Appellant:	Firths Compensation Lawyers
Respondent:	Rankin Nathan Lawyers
ORDERS MADE ON APPEAL:		Leave to appeal is refused. Each party is to pay his or its own costs of the appeal.

BACKGROUND TO THE APPEAL

1. The appellant, Sui Wen Yang (also known as Bill Yang) was employed by the respondent employer ,Topline Holdings Pty Limited trading as Topline Shower Screens, as a process worker.

2. In a claim form dated 28 June 2007, Mr Yang claimed he suffered a neck strain on 31 May 2007 while assembling shower screens.

3. In a subsequent claim form dated 9 May 2008, Mr Yang alleged he injured his neck, back and chest on 31 May 2007 due to a greater than usual amount of lifting and hammering. He also alleged his injuries were due to the ‘nature and conditions’ of his employment.

4. Liability in respect of the injury on 31 May 2007 was initially accepted by GIO and payments were made to Mr Yang from that time until 18 August 2009.

5. Pursuant to a s 74 notice dated 8 July 2009, GIO disputed Mr Yang had suffered an injury to his back in the incident on 31 May 2007. GIO accepted that Mr Yang suffered an injury to his neck in the course of his employment on 31 May 2007, but alleged that the injury was a temporary aggravation of a pre-existing degenerative condition, the effects of which had ceased. It denied liability for medical expenses, permanent impairment and denied any injury to the chest arising from the alleged injury on 31 May 2007.

6. Mr Yang filed an Application to Resolve a Dispute (the Application) in the Commission on 10 April 2010. He alleged that he sustained a number of work-related injuries during the course of his employment:

   (a)     in or about April/May 2006, injury to the lumbar spine as a result of lifting a glass panel;

   (b)     on or about 31 May 2007, injury to the neck and right sternoclavicular joint as a result of repetitive lifting and hammering;

   (c)     in or about February/March 2008, aggravation of neck, sternoclavicular joint and lumbar spine as a result of lifting and hammering shower screens into aluminium rims, and

   (d)     alternatively, aggravation of a disease of gradual onset in the cervical and lumbar spines due to the nature and conditions of employment from 19 June 2003 to 27 March 2008 involving heavy and repetitive lifting, carrying, bending and…