31 Oct 2016
Brewster v Accident Compensation Corporation
- Citation
- [2016] NZACC 290
- Court
- District Court
The appeal is dismissed: a correctly performed antenatal abdominal palpation that fails to detect a breech presentation does not, by itself, constitute treatment causing injury under s32 absent a departure from accepted professional standards or observable indications for different treatment; s32(3) bars treating mere failure to achieve a desired diagnostic result as causation; similarly, any failure to refer for morbid obesity did not establish the necessary causal nexus because specialist referral would not have certainly detected the breech prior to labour.