New South Wales Consolidated Acts

BISHOPSGATE INSURANCE AUSTRALIA LIMITED ACT 1983 - SECT 7

7 Appointment of Government Insurance Office as agent and attorney of employer

(1) Where an employer is insured under a policy of insurance issued by the Company, the Government Insurance Office, as manager of the fund, is by this Act appointed the agent and attorney of the employer and as such may, in the name of the employer or in its own name, exercise the rights, or discharge the obligations, of the employer for the purpose of:

(a) dealing with and finalising any claim against which the employer is indemnified under the policy of insurance,

(b) satisfying any such claim or any judgment or award against which the employer is indemnified under the policy of insurance, or

(c) to the extent that any such claim, judgment or award has been satisfied by the Government Insurance Office as agent and attorney of the employer:

(i) proving in the winding-up of the Company or under any scheme of arrangement in relation to the Company,

(ii) receiving any dividends or other money payable to the employer in the winding-up of the Company or under any scheme of arrangement in relation to the Company,

(iii) recovering any money which the employer is entitled to recover under section 64 of the Workers’ Compensation Act 1926 , or

(iv) recovering any money which the employer is entitled, under the policy of insurance, to recover from a company referred to in paragraphs (a)-(c) of the definition of "policy of insurance issued by the Company" in section 2 (1) or from a company prescribed for the purposes of paragraph (d) of that definition,

or for any other prescribed purpose.

(1A) A reference in subsection (1) (c) to a claim, judgment or award satisfied by the Government Insurance Office includes (in the case of payments under a scheme of arrangement in relati on to the Company) a reference to any contingent liability in respect of any such claim, judgment or award that has not been satisfied or any such future claim, judgment or award.

(2) All rights vested in an insurer and all obligations imposed on an insurer, being rights or obligations:

(a) arising from or pertaining to a policy of insurance issued by the Company to an employer, and

(b) which may or shall be exercised or discharged for the purpose of:

(i) dealing with and finalising any claim, or

(ii) satisfying any claim, judgment or award,

against which the employer is indemnified under the policy,

are hereby vested in or imposed on the employer.

(3) Subsection (2) shall not be construed so as to vest in or impose on an employer, or to affect in any other way, a right of an insurer to be indemnified by a reinsurer or an obligation of an insurer to indemnify an employer or any other prescribed right or obligation.

(4) Where the Government Insurance Office is, under subsection (1), empowered to exercise any rights, or to discharge any obligations, of an employer as the employer’s agent and attorney, the employer is not entitled, without the consent of the Government Insurance Office, to exercise those rights or discharge those obligations.

(5) The appointment effected pursuant to subsection (1) may be revoked only by an Act.