Section 7(6) of the SRC Act is a special deeming provision which provides that incapacity is taken to have resulted from a disease or aggravation of a disease in the specified circumstances. The form of the provision is:
7(6)An incapacity for work or impairment of an employee shall be taken, for the purposes of this Act, to have resulted from a disease, or an aggravation of a disease, if, but for that disease or aggravation, as the case may be:
(a)the incapacity or impairment would not have occurred;
(b)the incapacity would have commenced, or the impairment would have occurred, at a significantly later time; or
(c)the extent of the incapacity or impairment would have been significantly less.
This deeming provision does not often arise in practice, but the assessor should be aware of its possible relevance in rare cases.
Whether the incapacity would have occurred at a “significantly later time” will depend on the facts of each case and the medical evidence.
In the context of s 7(5), the qualification of “later time” by the word “significantly” suggests that the time period which triggers the application of s7(5) should be substantial, a matter of months or years rather than a few days.