New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments

Topic

Backdating of entitlement

Legal area

Court

23 Aug 2011

Benham v Accident Compensation Corporation

Citation

[2011] NZACC 234
Court

District Court

Dr Wright's AMA4 assessment, confirmed by peer review from an appointed assessor (Dr Schousboe), was not shown to be materially flawed by Dr Walsh's reports (who was not an appointed assessor and did not identify specific errors); therefore ACC's 31 December 2009 decision assessing 25% whole person impairment is upheld; any further backdating is constrained by Schedule 1 cl.63 and ACC's back payments were appropriate.
2 Nov 2010

Marfell v Accident Compensation Corporation

Citation

[2010] NZACC 195
Court

District Court

The statutory scheme requires vocational independence to be determined by assessment on the day of medical examination and does not permit recording an earlier period of loss unless a separate assessment during that deterioration is undertaken; s113 allows backdating only where entitlement is regained at assessment, therefore the appellant's appeal fails and loss of weekly compensation on 30 April 2009 stands.
22 Jun 2005

Rivers v Accident Compensation Corporation

Citation

[2005] NZACC 188
Court

District Court

The review officer correctly reinstated weekly compensation from the date he quashed the respondent's decision (26 March 2004); there was factual ambiguity about deterioration, no evidence of unreasonable delay by ACC, and no basis to displace the statutory starting point under s113 or to exercise discretion to backdate to April 2003.
11 Jan 2005

Birchler v Accident Compensation Corporation

Citation

[2005] NZACC 6
Court

District Court

All covered injuries must be assessed together to determine a combined whole person impairment and any prior lump sum percentages paid under earlier Acts must be deducted from that combined impairment; because the assessor's AMA4-based evaluation was not shown to be incorrect the 8% historical lump sum was properly deducted reducing the combined 19% impairment to an 11% independence allowance, payable from the date of application.

New Zealand Case Law

Benham v Accident Compensation Corporation

Marfell v Accident Compensation Corporation

Rivers v Accident Compensation Corporation

Birchler v Accident Compensation Corporation