Dust disease cases – Windfall concerns

See Arentz v Workers' Compensation (Dust Diseases) Board15/8/14 [2014] NSWDC 205 where Neilson DCJ stated that “the recovery of damages at common law does no (sic) affect a worker's right to recover statutory benefits under the Dust Act and, therefore, a worker's common law damages are to be reduced to reflect that entitlement” @30. “In the current case I do not know if any deduction was made by Amaca from its assessment of the plaintiff's damages which led to its offer of compromise. If a deduction were made I do not know how it was calculated. The evidence is silent on those issues. As I have already stated, I can not find that no such deduction was made. Clearly, Amaca ought to have made a deduction. It runs the risk of paying twice” @31. P’s “right to statutory entitlements is not defeated by his common law settlement or by any default of Amaca in doing what the law required it to do” @33.