Last month, our client’s dependency claim for the death of her FIFO worker husband, who died of a heart attack while exercising was successful. She was awarded the maximum Notional Residual Entitlement of $298,810.00 plus costs.

The case was an application of the principal in Hatzimanolis v ANI Corporation Ltd [1992] HCA 21 as discussed in Westrupp v BIS Industries Limited [2015] FCAFC 173.

The take away point is that even where a worker is not performing actual work when he or she has an injury, the worker may still have a claim depending upon the type of injury and where it occurred. 

In this case, the employer had encouraged the FIFO worker to exercise, and provided him with gym membership. He died whilst exercising, and it was found that in these circumstances, death had resulted from a personal injury by accident, and the worker’s widow was entitled to compensation.