Tasmanian Supreme Court Justice Helen Wood loses superannuation case after appeal by RBF allowed

THE RBF Board has won its appeal against the ruling that Justice Helen Wood was incorrectly moved from a more lucrative super scheme when she left the Magistrates Court for the Supreme Court in 2009.

Justice Helen Wood resigned her appointment as a magistrate on November 8, 2009, and was appointed to the Supreme Court the following day.

THE Retirement Benefits Fund Board has won its appeal against the ruling that Justice Helen Wood was incorrectly moved from a more lucrative superannuation scheme when she left the Magistrates Court for the Supreme Court in 2009.

Retired Federal Court Justice Peter Heerey, who was flown in to hear the original case as an acting judge in March, ruled in favour of Justice Wood.

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Acting Justice Heerey found that Justice Wood held a continuity of service in the judicial arm of the Government when she resigned her appointment as a magistrate on November 8, 2009, and was appointed to the Supreme Court the following day.

“As an analogy by way of ill­ustration, if a sergeant was commissioned as a lieutenant, one would not say there was any cessation of service in the army, even though there was appointment to a new office,” Acting Justice Heerey said.

“One might say that the sergeant had been promoted, as indeed could be said about the plaintiff’s elevation to the Supreme Court.”

He ordered that the RBFB reinstate Justice Wood’s benefits to a level equivalent to those had she never left the scheme, and also to pay the plaintiff’s legal costs.

But the RBFB appealed, and today former Victorian Supreme Court justice David Byrne, NSW Court of Appeal Justice Arthur Emmett and Queensland Supreme Court Justice Hugh Fraser allowed the appeal.

They set Acting Justice Heerey’s declarations aside, and dismissed the proceedings.

RBF is the State’s Government-owned public sector superannuation scheme.

Originally published as Tasmanian Supreme Court Justice Helen Wood loses superannuation case after appeal by RBF allowed