Walker v Accident Rehabilitation and Compensation Insurance Corporation

IN THE DISTRICT COURT HELD AT WELLINGTON Decision No. 28 8 199 IN THE MATTER of The Accident Rehabilitation and Compensation Insurance Act 1992 AND IN THE MATTER of an Appeal pursuant to Section 91 of the Act BETWEEN COLIN RONALD WALKER DCA 18/99 Appellant AND ACCIDENT REHABILITATION AND COMPENSATION INSURANCE CORPORATION a body corporate duly constituted under the provisions of the said Act Respondent DECISION ON APPLICATION FOR LEAVE TO APPEAL TO HIGH COURT The appellant has applied for leave to appeal to the High Court against the decision of His Honour Judge A W Middleton, issued on the 11" day of June 1999 under No. 145/99. There were two issues for determination in that appeal. 2 i) Whether the Corporation was correct in basing the appellant's entitlement to weekly compensation on his "liable" earnings on which he had paid ACC premiums (i.e. his income excluding royalties), and not on his "assessable income" as returned in his income tax return, which included royalties. ii) Whether the royalties received after the commencement of incapacity, for work done before the incapacity commenced, were "earnings" for the purposes of the abatement provisions of section 47. The facts which required to be considered for the determination of those issues were not in dispute and are noted by His Honour in the second page of his decision. The issue which has been identified by counsel for the appellant, namely the meaning of the expressions "earnings as an employee" and "earnings other than as an employee" , within the meaning of the Act and the Earnings Definitions Regulations 1992, as those expressions apply to the appellant's royalties and other income and the effects that those two categories of remuneration have on his entitlements to weekly compensation, are questions of law and as such it is appropriate that these questions be considered by the High Court. Accordingly leave is granted to the appellant to appeal the decision of His Honour to the High Court. DATED at WELLINGTON this 1 3 day of October 1999 M J Beattie District Court Judge 18.99 Walker.doc(gm)