New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments | LexChat

Topic

Pre-existing disease

Legal area

Court

11 Mar 2013

Kendall v Accident Compensation Corporation

Citation

[2013] NZACC 54
Court

District Court

On balance the Court accepted the collective weight of the three treating orthopaedic surgeons that the covered injuries (2002 and 2008) likely made a substantial contribution to the osteoarthritis necessitating total knee replacement; therefore the condition was not caused wholly or substantially by pre-existing disease and ACC must fund the surgery.
7 Nov 2003

Lecky v Accident Compensation Corporation

Citation

[2003] NZACC 278
Court

District Court

On the balance of probabilities the appellant's current chronic pain disorder is wholly or substantially attributable to pre-existing osteoarthritis and the adverse outcome of surgery for that disease, not to an ongoing injury from the 1995 accident or treatment of that injury; the chain of causation to the 1995 accident was broken before surgery, so the condition is not 'an outcome of' the accident or of treatment for an accident and therefore is not covered under the 1992 Act (s4 and s10).