Decided 2 November 1998 | End date November 2, 1998 | |
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Full case name Queenstown Lakes District Council v Mark Thomas Palmer Citation(s) CA83/98 [1998] NZCA 190; [1999] 1 NZLR 549 Transcript(s) Court of Appeal judgment Judge sittings Ivor Richardson, Thomas Gault, Peter Blanchard, Andrew Tipping, Ted Thomas | ||
Queenstown Lakes District Council v Palmer CA83/98 [1998] NZCA 190; [1999] 1 NZLR 549 is a cited case in New Zealand regarding the claiming of damages for nervous shock from witnessing an accident. .
Contents
Background
Mark Palmer and his wife where tourists from the US, and went white water rafting on the Shotover River.
Tragedy struck, when his wife drowned in the river, and whilst Palmer did not suffer any physical injuries, he suffered post traumatic injury for witnessing her death.
Thomas sued the rafting company and the local council for damages for his mental injuries.
The council defended the matter by claiming that the ACC law prohibited awarding damages for injury in NZ.
However, Palmer said the law was changed in 1992 with the Accident Rehabilitation Act, where section 14(1) now excluded cover for mental injury for witnessing an accident.
Held
The Court of Appeal confirmed that section 14(1) now allowed people to sue for mental injury resulting in witnessing an accident.