Wallace v Workers' Compensation Regulator (No 2)
[2022] QIRC 257
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- Unreported Judgment
- Wallace v Workers' Compensation Regulator (No 2)[2022] QIRC 257
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Wallace v Workers' Compensation Regulator (No 2)[2022] QIRC 257
Wallace v Workers' Compensation Regulator (No 2)[2022] QIRC 257
QUEENSLAND INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS COMMISSION
CITATION: | Wallace v Workers' Compensation Regulator (No 2) [2022] QIRC 257 |
PARTIES: | Wallace, Vicki Ann (Appellant) v Workers' Compensation Regulator (Respondent) |
CASE NO: | WC/2020/114 |
PROCEEDING: | Application |
DELIVERED ON: | 1 July 2022 |
HEARING DATE: | 27 June 2022 |
MEMBER: | O'Connor VP |
HEARD AT: | Brisbane |
ORDER: |
|
CATCHWORDS: | INDUSTRIAL LAW – APPEAL – WORKERS' COMPENSATION – INTERLOCUTORY APPLICATION – where an application has been brought to dismiss – where there exists history on non-compliance – whether just and reasonable to dismiss substantive matter |
LEGISLATION: | Industrial Relations (Tribunals) Rules 2011 (Qld) r 5, r 6, r 45 |
CASES: | House v The King (1936) 55 CLR 499 Quaedvlieg and Ors v Boral Resources (Qld) Pty Ltd (2005) 180 QGIG 1209 Quinlan v Rothwell & Anor [2002] 1 Qd R 647 |
APPEARANCES: | No appearance from the Appellant Mr G Clark for the Regulator |
Reasons for Decision
- [1]The Workers' Compensation Regulator (the Respondent in substantive proceedings) filed an application to have matter WC/2020/114 struck out on 2 June 2022.
- [2]On 27 June 2022 I ordered that the matter be struck out, with my reasons to be published at a later date. These are my reasons.
Background
- [3]The original appeal was filed on 27 August 2020. On the same day the Industrial Registry issued directions for filing relevant documentation.
- [4]Various documentation was filed in the Registry until 9 February 2021, at which point the Industrial Registry vacated and reissued directions with a revised timeline for filing at the Appellant's request.[1]
- [5]This matter was mentioned before me on 19 May 2022. The Appellant failed to appear. No reason has been provided for her non-attendance.
- [6]At the mention on 19 May 2022, the Regulator confirmed that the last correspondence they had received from the Appellant was in August of 2021.[2] The Regulator further confirmed it had sent an email to the Appellant on 22 February of 2022 but had not received a response. The last correspondence the Industrial Registry received from the Appellant were submissions for an interlocutory matter related to copying and discovery. Those submissions were dated 27 May 2021.
- [7]On 2 June 2022 the Regulator filed and application in the Industrial Registry to dismiss the proceedings pursuant to r 45(3) of the Industrial Relations Tribunal Rules.
- [8]On 27 June 2022 the matter was again listed. The Appellant failed to attend. No reason has been communicated either to the Industrial Registry or the Regulator for her non-attendance.
The Rules
- [9]Rule 5 of Industrial Relations (Tribunals) Rules 2011 (Qld) ('the Rules') provides that the Rules apply to a proceeding before the Court, the Commission, a Magistrate or the Registrar.
- [10]Rule 6 of the Rules sets out the purpose of the rules as follows:
The purpose of these rules is to provide for the just and expeditious disposition of the business of the court, the commission, a magistrate and the registrar at a minimum of expense.
- [11]In my view, r 6 recognises the obligation placed, in this instance, on the Commission and implicitly on the parties to ensure the expeditious disposition of matters in the Commission.
- [12]Rule 45 provides:
45 Failure to attend or to comply with directions order
- (1)This rule applies if -
- (a)a party to a proceeding receives notice of a directions order made by the court, commission or registrar stating a time, date and place for a hearing or conference for the proceeding; and
- (b)the party fails to attend the hearing or conference.
- (2)This rule also applies if -
- (a)a party to a proceeding receives notice of a directions order made by the court, commission or registrar; and
- (b)the party fails to comply with the order.
- (3)The court, commission or registrar may -
- (a)dismiss the proceeding; or
- (b)make a further directions order; or
- (c)make another order dealing with the proceeding that the court, commission or registrar considers appropriate, including, for example, a final order; or
- (d)make orders under paragraphs (b) and (c).
- [13]
Consideration
- [14]
There is now a consciousness of the need for some level of efficiency in the use of the courts as a public resource. That, of course, must not displace the need for reasonable access to the courts and the provision of justice according to law in each matter, but it highlights the fact that the former laissez faire attitude by courts towards the leisurely conduct of actions at the will of the parties has ended. At the same time the rules of court are not an end in themselves. They do not exist for the discipline of practitioners or clients, or for the protection of courts from inefficient litigants, but rather as a means of ensuring that issues will be defined in an orderly way and that parties have the opportunity of full preparation of their case before the trial commences. The rules also afford defendants the means of bringing to an end actions in which the other party will not abide by the rules.
- [15]Whilst Quinlan v Rothwell & Anor related to the application of the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 1999 (Qld) in respect of application to dismiss for want of prosecution, in my respectful view, the reasoning of Thomas JA has equal application to the current proceedings.
- [16]The discretion to dismiss this proceeding has, in my view, been enlivened. Accordingly, having regard to the history of unjustified non-compliance with the direction's orders, the absence of any communication with the Appellant since August of 2021 and, in particular, her failure to attend the mention on 19 May 2022 and on 27 June 2022 are all appropriate grounds to exercise the discretion to dismiss the proceeding.
- [17]Accordingly, I order that:
- Pursuant to rule 45(3) of the Industrial Relations (Tribunals) Rules 2011 (Qld), matter WC/2020/114 is dismissed.
- There be no order as to costs.