New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments | LexChat

New Zealand Case Law

Spinal surgery
  • 29 Nov 2016

    Holden v Accident Compensation Corporation

    Citation
    [2016] NZACC 310
    Court
    District Court

    The Court accepted the independent expert opinion (Howie and Hunter) over the treating surgeon; on the balance of probabilities the appellant failed to establish that the 2006 accident materially caused the L4/5 instability requiring fusion, because imaging and expert analysis showed developmental/Scheuermann's and degenerative changes and no contemporaneous evidence of acute traumatic cause; therefore ACC liability for the surgery was not established.