An employee has a pre-existing injury. However, subsequently, he was involved in an accident at work which caused further injury.
Does the pre-existing injury affect compensation claimed by the employee for the latter injury?
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In Department of Labour: Compensation Commissioner v Botha (2022) 3 SALLR 17 (SCA), it is
submitted that the supreme court of appeal adopted the following correct approach:
- the question to be determined is whether there is a causal connection between the subsequent
accident and the disability - in order to determine whether or not such causal link is established, the approach adopted in
Basson v Ongevallekommissaris [2000] 1 All SA 67 (C) is to be followed, entailing that a causal
connection is established if the subsequent accident was a contributing factor, even if a pre-
existing condition existed, i e the disability was exacerbated by the subsequent accident,
rendering the employee disabled - once such causal link is established, that would entail the end of the ‘first enquiry’ and the
‘second enquiry’ is to be proceeded with in order to determine the extent that the pre-existing
injury contributed to the disablement – in casu, the SCA found that it was impossible to establish
such extent on the medical records before it and ordered the compensation commissioner to
obtain such record and also provide the employee with the opportunity to obtain his own medical
reports in this regard
