$4000 La-Z-Boy chair ruling rocks ACC

A disabled Taranaki man is sitting pretty following a landmark decision against the Accident Compensation Corporation over a La-Z-Boy chair.

Philip Bonner, who has a permanently dislocated hip, has won a fight against ACC over the corporation's refusal to provide him with a $4000 leather La-Z-Boy Mirage chair.

The corporation said the chair was not of a type normally provided by a rehabilitation provider.

But New Plymouth's Mr Bonner - supported by Auckland-based campaigner Dermot Nottingham - said it was.

The case went before ACC reviewer Clinton Light, who quashed the original decision and directed the corporation to provide Mr Bonner with the La-Z-Boy Mirage chair.

Yesterday, a defiant Mr Bonner celebrated his victory by sitting in his chair outside ACC's New Plymouth offices.

"It's a lovely chair - it's even got a massage unit in it. But I'd much rather have a better back," he said as he tried the chair out.

Mr Nottingham said a precedent had been set and hundreds, possibly thousands, of claimants might be able to reclaim or claim for rehabilitation aids.

However, an ACC spokesman said the decisions by ACC reviewers did not set precedents as they were not legally binding. The decision was a one-off, and ACC was not reviewing its policy in regard to providing La-Z-Boy chairs.

Mr Nottingham said ACC had tried to renege on a clear and binding agreement to supply Mr Bonner with a chair suitable for pain relief.

"Mr Bonner's family is distraught at the lack of empathy and assistance from the corporation - and are literally ill as a result of the stress."

Mr Bonner suffered a fracture dislocation of his right hip in a motor accident in 1985, and he then sustained further nerve damage to his leg as a consequence of medical misadventure.

- NZPA