ACC awaits outcome of asbestos appeal

The Accident Compensation Corporation is holding back on moves to recover asbestos-related lump sum payments, until after the appeal process on the landmark Lehmann case ends.

ACC said in a statement today it had filed 19 district court appeals against payments to asbestos sufferers, following a decision by Justice Goddard in the High Court earlier this month.

However, it had deferred the question of whether to seek the return of payments until after the appeal process on that case ends.

ACC said Justice Goddard's decision confirmed its view that claimants who were last exposed to asbestos in employment before April 1 2002 were not entitled to lump sum compensation, but rather their correct entitlement was an independence allowance.

Justice Goddard overturned a Wellington District Court decision last August, in which ACC was ordered to pay $100,000 to the estate of Auckland fitter and welder Ross Lehmann. Mr Lehmann died in November 2003 aged 79 from asbestos-related lung cancer.

In its appeal to the High Court, ACC said the law did not allow it to make payouts to people exposed to asbestos before April 2002.

Justice Goddard upheld that view, saying under the current law claimants such as Mr Lehmann were entitled only to an independence allowance of $67 a week for their lifetime, not lump sum payments.

ACC said today the lump sum compensation paid to the Lehmann Estate was therefore an overpayment.

However, because the Lehmmann estate was seeking leave to appeal the High Court's decision to the Court of Appeal, the ACC board had decided that the question of debt recovery should be deferred until after the appeal process ended.

ACC had filed 19 appeals in the district court against review decisions which awarded lump sum compensation to other claimants, the statement said.

"ACC has written to these claimants and advised them of the High Court's decision in estate of Lehmann.

"ACC has advised them that if the High Court's decision is upheld, the payment made in excess of the independence allowance entitlement will be an overpayment."

However, ACC would not ask the district court to set these appeals down for hearing until after the Lehmann Estate appeal process was concluded.

After the High Court decision, Wellington lawyer Hazel Armstrong, who is acting for Mr Lehmann's estate and nine other lump sum recipients, said a total of 26 workers had been awarded lump sum payments worth more than $2.5 million.

- NZPA