Super shift success for Tasmanian Supreme Court Justice Helen Wood

A TASMANIAN Supreme Court judge has won her legal action against the state’s public sector superannuation scheme.

Tasmania's newest Supreme Court judge, Justice Helen Wood, who was sworn in today

A  TASMANIAN Supreme Court judge has won the right to be reinstated in a more generous superannuation scheme, after successfully suing the public sector’s Retirement Benefits Fund Board.

Justice Helen Wood claimed she had been incorrectly moved from a more luc­rative contributory super scheme to an accumulation scheme when called up from the Magistrates Court in 2009.

A day-long hearing was held in the Supreme Court in Hobart this month.

MORE: JUSTICE SUES OVER SUPER PLAN SHIFT

Acting Justice Peter Heerey, a retired Federal Court judge appointed by the Tas­manian Government to hear the case, upheld Justice Wood’s claim in a decision del­ivered by video link from Melbourne. Acting Justice Heerey found the fact Justice Wood resigned her appointment as a magistrate on November 8, 2009, to be appointed to the Supreme Court the following day pointed to a continuity of service in the judicial arm of the government.

“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 Retirement Benefits Fund Board 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.