South Australian Consolidated Acts South Australian Consolidated Acts8—Evidentiary presumptions and special rules of evidence and procedure
(1) If it is
established in a dust disease action that a person (the
"injured person")—
(a)
suffers or suffered from a dust disease; and
(b) was
exposed to asbestos dust in circumstances in which the exposure might have
caused or contributed to the disease,
it will be presumed, in the absence of proof to the contrary, that the
exposure to asbestos dust caused or contributed to the injured person's dust
disease.
(2) A person who, at a
particular time, carried on a prescribed industrial or commercial process that
could have resulted in the exposure of another to asbestos dust will be
presumed, in the absence of proof to the contrary, to have known at the
relevant time that exposure to asbestos dust could result in a dust disease.
(3) The following
rules apply in a dust disease action:
(a) the
Court may admit evidence admitted in an earlier dust disease action against
the same defendant (including in a dust disease action brought in a court of
the Commonwealth or another State or Territory);
(b) the
Court may dispense with proof of any matter that appears to the Court to be
not seriously in dispute;
(c) the
Court may invite a party to admit facts of a formal nature, or facts that are
peripheral to the major issues in dispute, and may, if the party declines to
do so, award the costs of proving those facts against the party.
(4) If—
(a) a
finding of fact has been made in a dust disease action by a court of this
State, the Commonwealth or another State or Territory; and
(b) the
finding is, in the Court's opinion, of relevance to a dust disease action
before the court,
the Court may admit the finding into evidence and indicate to the parties that
it proposes to make a corresponding finding in the case presently before the
Court unless the party who would be adversely affected satisfies the Court
that such a finding is inappropriate to the circumstances of the present case.