Cullen v Clarke

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1964
• Date: 01 January 1964
• Court: Supreme Court

(S.C.)

Cullen

and

Clarke

Whether to be treated as total - Efforts to obtain work - Nature of evidence - Whether hearsay evidence admissible - Workmen's Compensation Act, 1934, s. 24 (1).

Section 24 (1) of the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1934 provides that if a workman, who has so far recovered from the injury as to be fit for employment of a certain kind, has failed to obtain employment and it appears to the Court either - (a) that, having regard to all the circumstances, it is probable that the workman would, but for the continuing effects of the injury, be able to obtain work in the same grade in the same class of employment as before the accident; or (b) that his failure to obtain employment is a consequence, whether wholly or mainly, of the injury, the Court shall order that the workman is incapacity shall be treated as total incapacity. A builder's labourer had been found partially incapacitated. He applied to the Circuit Court for a finding that his partial incapacity should be treated as total, under s. 24 (1) of the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1934. He gave evidence of many abortive efforts to obtain work. It was held in the Circuit Court that C. was not entitled to quote what prospective employers had said to him if he were seeking to rely on the truth of those statements as showing the reasons why the prospective employers refused to give him employment The Circuit Judge held that, accordingly the applicant had failed to bring himself within s. 24 sub-s. 1 of the Workmen's...