Locality cases
40 Telstra contends that in deciding whether Mr Bowden's injury had a sufficient causal connection to his employment with Telstra, the Tribunal was required to consider whether moving the waste bin was something that Mr Bowden was required or expected to do to carry out the actual duties of his employment. However, the authorities are replete with examples where the appellate courts have found a sufficient causal connection between injury and employment without applying the required or expected duties test as strictly as Telstra contends.
41 For convenience I will group some of these cases as "locality cases". However, to treat them as a special category is wrong as they are no more than the application of the broad words "arising out of employment" to the particular facts of the cases.
42 In Thom a worker suffered injury when an unstable brick wall on land which was adjoining to the employer's premises collapsed onto a shed in which she was working. The force which brought the wall down was unconnected with the worker's employment, and the shed itself was in good order. The injury was held by the House of Lords per Lords Haldane, Kinnear, Shaw and Parmoor to arise out of employment. Lord Haldane said at 135:
Has the accident arisen because the claimant was employed in the particular spot on which the roof fell? If so, the accident has arisen out of the employment, and there is no necessity to go back in the search for causes to anything more remote than the immediate event, the mere fall of the roof, and there need be no other connection between what happened and the nature of the work in which the injured person was engaged.
43 His Lordship considered that if an obligation of employment brought an employee to a particular place where the risk of injury arose then an injury suffered was one arising out of employment: Thom at 134. As noted above at [40] Lord Shaw expressed a similar view.
44 In Upton v Great Central Railway Co [1924] AC 302 at 306, 308 ("Upton") Lord Haldane explained that it will suffice if the accident arises out of circumstances that the employee has had to encounter because it is within the scope of his employment to do so. His Lordship's remarks in both cases regarding the test for injury arising out employment have been cited with approval in many Australian cases. See: Pearson v The Freemantle Harbour Trust (1929) 42 CLR 320 at 330 in which Knox CJ, Rich and Dixon JJ applied Upton at 306; Smith v Australian Woollen Mills Ltd (1933) 50 CLR 504 ("Australian Woollen Mills") at 512 per Gavan Duffy CJ, Rich, Evatt and McTiernan JJ citing Upton at 308 and at 518 per Starke J citing Upton at 307 and 308; Goward v The Commonwealth (1957) 97 CLR 355 at 364 per Dixon CJ, Williams, Webb and Kitto JJ, citing Upton at 306 and 308; Local Government Association (City of Salisbury) v May (1996) 67 SASR 353 at 356 to 357 where Duggan J (with whom Cox and Matheson JJ agreed) followed the High Court's approval of Upton in Goward. In Zlateska v Consolidated Cleaning Services Pty Ltd [2006] VSCA 141 ("Zlateska") at [50] to [51] Eames JA (delivering joint judgment with Maxwel ACJ and Redlich JA) cited Thom at 134 with approval.
45 Similarly, in 1929 in Lawrence v George Matthews (1924), Ltd [1929] 1 KB 1 at 19 Russell LJ held that:
…sufficient causal relation or causal connection between the accident and the employment is established if the man's employment brought him to the particular spot where the accident occurred, and the spot in fact turns out to be a dangerous spot. If such a locality risk is established, then the accident "arises out of" the employment, even though the risk which caused the accident was neither necessarily incident to the performance of the man's work, nor one to which he was abnormally subjected.
It is of significance that Lord Justice Russell held that it is not necessary that the risk which caused the accident giving rise to injury is incident to the performance of the employee's work.
46 The approach taken by Lord Justice Russell was approved in Stewart v Metropolitan Water, Sewerage and Drainage Board (1932) 48 CLR 216 ("Stewart") per Gavan Duffy CJ, Evatt and McTiernan JJ at 224, and by Dixon J as he then was at 232. In this case a supervisor was killed when a kerosene stove exploded. The lunch break had not yet started and the team of gangers to be supervised by him were still working some 40 metres away. Despite this, the supervisor was sitting and watching one ganger trying to prime the kerosene stove so as to boil a billy. The supervisor's death was held to arise out of his employment.
47 The majority stated at 224 to 225:
We think that some confusion has been caused by a misunderstanding of Lord Justice Russell's phrase "if the man's employment brought him to the particular spot." This cannot mean that there has to exist any special duty to be at the particular place of the accident. In Lawrence v George Matthews (1924) Ltd the commercial traveller was not bound to be at the spot where the tree fell, any more than the collector in McNeice's Case was bound to be at the spot where he was kicked on the knee by a passing horse. The condition is satisfied if the worker, whilst in the course of his employment, may properly come and does come to the point of danger. It is there that his "employment brought him."
…
On this question of whether the accident arose "out of" [the worker's] employment, the Supreme Court laid stress upon the absence of any duties on [the worker's] part "associated with" the stove. But this is as irrelevant as the absence of any duty by the commercial traveller in relation to the tree which was struck by lightning (Lawrence's Case), or of the salesman in relation to the horse which kicked him (McNeice's Case), or of the railway guard to the windows or doors of the carriage, out of which he fell whilst "in the course of" his employment, but not in the course of any particular work or duty to the employer (Simpson's Case).
48 Stewart confirms that there is a sufficient causal connection for an injury to arise out of employment if the injury occurred when a worker's employment brought him to a particular locality where the danger arose. The majority imposed no requirement such that the worker be taken to that locality by the actual duties required or expected of him, or that the event giving rise to the accident was something that the employee was required to do to carry out the active duties of his employment. Nor did the Court use the expression "special" in relation to the danger at the locality.
49 Although the Tribunal does not refer to these cases it should not be thought that the facts in Mr Bowden's case are far removed from the facts underlying them. Mr Bowden argues that the nature, conditions, obligations and incidents of his employment brought him to the car parking space where he suffered injury and that the injury therefore arose out of his employment.
50 In Australian Woollen Mills the connection to employment was less clear again. Gavan Duffy CJ, Rich, Dixon, Evatt, McTiernan and Starke JJ found that an injury suffered by an employee when he fell at work because of a diabetic condition unrelated to employment, and as a result hitting his head upon a guard rail, was one arising out of employment. In relation to the test Starke J noted at 517 to 518:
…the following propositions have, I think, been established: -
1. The expression "arising out of" imports some kind of causal relation with the employment, but it does not necessitate direct or physical causation. Was it part of the injured person's employment to hazard, to suffer, or to do that which caused his injury? It must arise out of the work which the worker is employed to do - out of his service [Citations omitted].
…
3. An injury which arises directly out of circumstances encountered because to encounter them falls within the scope of employment is an injury arising out of the employment. If the worker is injured by contact physically with some part of the place where he works, then, apart from questions of his own misconduct, he at once associates the injury with his employment [Citations omitted].
These propositions appear to me decisive of this case in favour of the worker. The risk or hazard of falling upon the rail guard was one which he encountered in the course of his work, and was associated with his work, and the injury which resulted from that risk therefore arose out of his employment, and, admittedly, in the course of his employment.
51 Brooker v Thomas Borthwick and Sons (Australasia) Ltd [1933] AC 669 related to four workers who were amongst many hundreds killed or injured during an earthquake in New Zealand. The injuries or deaths of three of the four workers occurred when they were struck by falling debris, and of the fourth worker when he fell down a steep incline. The cause of the injuries and deaths was a natural force unconnected with employment, and everyone within a large geographical area was exposed to a similar risk of danger. The Judicial Committee per Lords Atkin, Tomlin, Macmillan, Wright and Lowndes found that the injuries and deaths arose out of employment. Lord Atkin delivered the judgment of the House and at 676 to 677, referring with approval to Lord Haldane's statement in Thom, his Lordship stated:
The principle which emerges seems to be clear. The accident must be connected with the employment: must arise 'out of it'.
…
This he can do if he can show that the employment exposed him in a special degree to suffering such an injury. But if he is injured by contact physically with some part of the place where he works, then, apart from questions of his own misconduct, he at once associates the accident with his employment and nothing further needs to be considered.
52 In O'Brien v Commonwealth (1967) 117 CLR 66 ("O'Brien") a worker suffered burns well after working hours, in fact after having his evening meal and whilst preparing a hot bath prior to going to bed. The injury occurred when he was getting hot water from a copper using a bucket and he spilled water onto himself. The worker lived at a work camp provided by the employer but he was able if he chose to board in a nearby town. The employer provided all equipment, including the copper and bucket. The Court held, per McTiernan, Kitto and Taylor JJ that the injury arose out of the employment.
53 The employer had argued that the event occurred outside the hours of labour and the worker was "engaged at the time in an activity of benefit only to himself and in his own time". This is to similar effect as Telstra's submission in the present case that Mr Bowden had not commenced work when he suffered injury and was not engaged in duties required or expected of him to perform the duties of employment. It is significant that the majority of Kitto and Taylor JJ did not adopt this approach. Taylor J (with whom Kitto J agreed) held at 77:
…it seems to me that if, in availing himself of the facilities provided he was exposed to some risk - resulting in an injury by accident - which was additional to or different from those which in normal circumstances he might be expected to encounter, the conclusion is inescapable that, at the least, his injury was caused by accident arising out of his employment. In such a case there is "a sufficiently proximate causal connexion between the employment and the accident to satisfy the condition expressed by the words 'arising out of'" (Henderson v. Commissioner of Railways (W.A.) (1937) 58 CLR, at 293).