O'Toole v BlueCare ATF the Uniting Church in Aust. Property Trust (Q)
[2025] QDC 93 · Jarro DCJ
Barbara O'Toole, a 66-year-old former adviser for BlueCare, suffered a psychiatric injury that she said arose from long hours, pressure and inadequate workplace support over 2019 and 2020. She applied to the court for permission to start a common-law damages claim outside the normal three-year time limit, arguing that she only realised in April 2024, when a medical tribunal said she was unlikely to return to substantial work, that she had a worthwhile claim. The court refused her application. The judge found she and her earlier lawyers already knew, well before the deadline, that her injury was serious, that she could not return to her old role, and that she was suffering ongoing economic loss. The tribunal's final opinion added little new information. Although the judge was sympathetic to her efforts to recover and noted there was no real prejudice to the employer, he was not persuaded the legal test for an extension was met, so the claim cannot now go forward.
Incident & injury
Psychiatric injury suffered in the course of employment as an adviser, said to result from inadequate psychological support combined with regularly working long hours under pressure without adequate support, between 16 April 2019 and 26 August 2020
- Body regions
- Psychiatric
- Diagnoses
- Psychiatric injury (permanent psychiatric impairment)
- Incident date
- 26 August 2020
Quick facts
- Date of judgment
- 4 July 2025
- Claim type
- WCRA Common Law
- Proceeding
- Interlocutory
- Plaintiff outcome
- Unsuccessful
- Plaintiff age at injury
- ~60 (inferred)
- Occupation
- Adviser Professional
Outcome
The applicant's application under s 31 of the Limitation of Actions Act 1974 (Qld) for leave to commence a common law action out of time was dismissed. The court held that the bare and essential ingredients of the cause of action, and the economic loss, were known to the applicant before the expiry of the ordinary limitation period, and the final tribunal opinion was not a material fact of a decisive character.
Defendant
1 BlueCare ATF the Uniting Church in Aust. Property Trust (Q)
Employer
- Judgment against this defendant
- $0
Key issues
O'Toole v BlueCare ATF the Uniting Church in Aust. Property Trust (Q) [2025] QDC 93
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Learn more about WorkCover common law claims and psychological injury claims in Queensland.