R v Deputy Industrial Injuries Commissioner, ex parte Jones
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Date | 1962 |
| Court | Divisional Court |
National Insurance - Industrial injuries benefit - Determination of claims - Assessor - Medical report - Practice - Natural justice -
It was a condition of the employment of the applicant as a hospital porter that he should be inoculated against poliomyelitis and on February 12, 1959, he received the third of three inoculations. Three days later he began to suffer pain which was diagnosed first as rheumatism but later as rheumatoid arthritis and, being unable to work, he claimed and received sickness benefit. On December 3, 1959, he claimed that his incapacity was due to the inoculation of February 12, 1959, and that he had suffered an injury by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment. The local insurance officer decided that he had not suffered an industrial injury and the applicant successfully appealed to the local insurance tribunal. The insurance officer appealed to the industrial injuries commissioner.
The appeal was heard by the deputy commissioner who decided after an oral hearing that he needed the assistance of a specialist in rheumatology. The case papers were sent to the specialist, who then saw the deputy commissioner and the deputy commissioner read to him his notes of the evidence and the specialist advised him. The deputy commissioner, without informing the parties of the course he had taken, gave his written decision allowing the insurance officer's appeal and, referring to the advice of the specialist, stated in paragraph 21 that “In view of this advice I cannot find that the [applicant] has proved … his case and I must therefore find that he did not suffer an industrial accident …”
On an application for an order of certiorari to quash that decision on the ground, inter alia, that the deputy commissioner, in deciding the appeal on or partly on the specialist's advice, was not acting in accordance with the provisions of the
Held, (1) that when there was an oral hearing before a quasi-judicial tribunal that tribunal might not, apart from express provisions, continue to hear evidence privately after the oral hearing and before arriving at its decision without notifying the parties of the advice or information it had received and allowing them either to have a further hearing or giving them an opportunity of commenting on that advice or information and making their final submissions thereon.
(2) That under regulation 22 (6) of the National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) (Determination of Claims and Questions) Regulations, 1948, an assessor, whether medical or technical, might be appointed to assist a commissioner in the limited capacity of an assessor whether there was an oral hearing or not; and that under regulation 26 (1) a commissioner might have the assistance of a report of an independent medical expert, but that if he did the parties should be notified of the report and given an opportunity to comment on it.
(3) That the function of an assessor was not to give evidence or advice but to assist the tribunal to understand the evidence and that, therefore, when there was an oral hearing it was necessary that he should be present to hear the oral evidence on which his assistance was required.
(4) That the advice given by the specialist to the deputy commissioner went far beyond the functions of an assessor, so that it became the duty of the deputy commissioner to inform the parties of the advice he had received and to give them an opportunity of either calling fresh evidence or of commenting thereon, and to make their submissions on it, and that, since it was impossible to find that the deputy commissioner had decided the case before consulting the specialist, his decision could not stand.
Esso Petroleum Co., Ltd. v. Southport Corporation [
MOTION for an order of certiorari.
The applicant, William John Jones, was employed as a hospital porter and it was a condition of that employment that he should be inoculated against poliomyelitis. On February 12, 1959, he received his third inoculation against that disease and three days later began to suffer pain and had to stay off work. He claimed and received sickness benefit up to December 3, 1959, when he claimed that he had suffered an industrial accident on February 12, 1959.
On December 11, 1959, the local insurance officer decided that he had not suffered personal injury by accident and from that decision the applicant appealed to the local appeal tribunal, Caernarvon. The local appeal tribunal, who sat without an assessor, found that “the balance of probability is that the incapacity was a direct effect of the inoculation for polio.”
The insurance officer appealed under the
On May 11, 1961, the deputy industrial injuries commissioner, Henry Ince Nelson, gave a written decision, which stated:
“19. Reviewing this evidence it did not seem to me that I could find that it was established, on the balance of probabilities, that the rheumatoid arthritis was caused by the inoculation …. 20. In view of the serious incapacity of the [applicant] I thought it desirable, before reaching a final conclusion, to seek the assistance of a specialist in this type of complaint. Accordingly, all the case papers were submitted to a specialist in rheumatology, to whom I afterwards read my notes of the oral evidence. He advised me...
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