Recruitment of ADF employees has the potential to employ persons with undetected medical conditions, weaknesses or propensities. This remains so, regardless of the strict medical standards which apply to recruits and the thorough medical examination to which they are subjected at application for employment. Given the nature of many medical conditions, this may be inevitable. Furthermore the le — g — al doctrine applied to all Australian compensation law, is that the employer accepts an employee 'as he finds him' and the latent or pre-existing nature of a disease can not diminish liability for any subsequent aggravation or acceleration by employment o — f an emerging illness.
This doctrine certainly applies where the client was in no position to know of their own (latent) medical condition or propensity to develop that medical condition and was thus not able to fully inform the examining doctor at enlist — ment.
The 'take him as you find him' doctrine naturally also applies where a pre-existing illness or an unfortunate medical history or a former injury was made known to the ADF medical examiner at recruitment, and the decision was taken to employ that pe — rson anyhow.
However, where the client has deliberately concealed a medical condition or a relevant medical history, that fraudulent concealment cancels any liability for an aggravation of, or sequelae to, that condition.