Kiely v Minister for Social Welfare

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 16 December 1971
• Date: 16 December 1971
• Docket Number: [1969 No. 226 Sp.]
• Court: High Court

(H.C.)

Kiely

and

Minister for Social Welfare

Natural justice - Social welfare - Appeal to appeals officer - Medical evidence furnished by written report - Social Welfare (Insurance Appeals) Regulations, 1952 (S.I. No. 376 of 1952), Article 11 (5) - Social Welfare Act, 1952 (No. 11 of 1952), s. 45 -Social Welfare (Occupational Injuries) Act, 1966 (No. 16), ss. 16, 38.

The appellant had applied pursuant to s. 16 of the Social Welfare (Occupational Injuries) Act, 1966, for social welfare benefits on the ground that her husband had died as a result of personal injury caused by an accident arising out of and in course of his employment. The appellant's husband had suffered burns in such an accident and he had died four months later, but his death was certified as being due to coronary thrombosis. The deciding officer refused the application on the grounds that the accident had not been a cause of the death. On appeal to an appeals officer the appellant submipted that a written report of a specialist in diseases of the heart, which report supported the decision of the deciding officer, was not admissible as evidence of fact on the issue of causation and that, in any event, the report should not be preferred to the oral and contrary testimony given by the doctor who had attended her husband after the accident. The appeals officer dismissed the appeal and the appellant then appealed to the High Court where it was Held by Kenny J., in allowing the appeal, 1, that in reaching his decision the appeals officer had been entitled to accept the evidence on causation contained in the written report in preference to the oral evidence on that issue...