AB v State of Queensland & another
[2021] QDC 171 · Porter QC DCJ
A woman, anonymised as AB, became a foster carer and in 2006 had a 17-year-old boy placed in her home. While he lived with her, he sexually abused her young daughter. After discovering the abuse, AB suffered psychiatric injury (nervous shock) and later sought to sue the State of Queensland and the foster agency, Life Without Barriers, claiming they should not have placed the boy with her without warning her of his history. Because she filed her claim in 2021 - many years after the events - she needed the court's permission to extend the time limit for bringing the claim. She argued that two recent expert reports revealed crucial new facts. The court refused the extension, finding that although the reports were genuinely new to her, a worthwhile claim could have been brought years earlier on facts she already knew. The application was dismissed and she was ordered to pay the respondents' legal costs, meaning her claim cannot now proceed.
Incident & injury
Nervous shock following discovery of alleged sexual and physical assaults by 17-year-old foster child (XY) placed in plaintiff's household, perpetrated against plaintiff's young daughter (CD)
- Body regions
- Psychiatric
- Diagnoses
- Nervous shock
- Incident date
- 1 September 2006
Quick facts
- Date of judgment
- 22 July 2021
- Claim type
- PIPA Public Liability
- Proceeding
- Interlocutory
- Plaintiff outcome
- Unsuccessful
- Plaintiff age at injury
- ~41 (inferred)
- Occupation
- Foster carer Community & Personal Service Worker
Outcome
The applicant's application to extend the limitation period under s 31 of the Limitation of Actions Act 1974 was dismissed. The court held that while the two reports relied upon were not within her means of knowledge, they did not constitute material facts of a decisive character because a worthwhile case could have been pleaded on facts already known to her. The applicant was ordered to pay the respondents' costs.
Key issues
AB v State of Queensland & another [2021] QDC 171
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