New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments | LexChat

Topic

Degeneration vs traumatic injury

Legal area

Court

23 May 2018

Stevenson v Accident Compensation Corporation (Entitlement to Surgery)

Citation

[2018] NZACC 81
Court

District Court

On the balance of probabilities the medical evidence, including expert advice from ACC clinical advisors and imaging, established the appellant's rotator cuff pathology is more likely due to chronic impingement/age-related degenerative change rather than causally caused by the 2012 or 2015 accidents; therefore the requested surgery is not an ACC-covered entitlement and the Corporation's decline and the reviewer's decision are upheld.
28 Nov 2014

King v Accident Compensation Corporation

Citation

[2014] NZACC 320
Court

District Court

On the balance of medical evidence the court found the appellant's ongoing lumbar pathology and symptoms were materially caused by the 2008 accident and prior covered injuries; ACC lacked a sufficient evidential basis to be 'not satisfied' when it suspended entitlements; the psychiatrist's opinion established the appellant's major depressive disorder resulted from the accident‑related physical injury, so ACC's decline of cover for the mental injury was legally incorrect.