When Power Goes Wrong · Liability & Remedy Ledger · Part 09

What does ACC block—and what can still be claimed?

Accident Compensation Act s 317 generally bars independent court proceedings for compensatory damages arising directly or indirectly from covered personal injury. The statute preserves specified other claims and expressly allows exemplary-damages proceedings under s 319.

Personal injury is the point at which many otherwise familiar tort remedies change dramatically in New Zealand.

Section 317 bars proceedings independently of the Accident Compensation Act for damages arising directly or indirectly out of covered personal injury. That means a negligence claim cannot ordinarily recover conventional personal-injury damages where ACC cover applies.

The bar does not erase every cause of action arising from the same events. The Act preserves proceedings concerning property damage, express contractual terms and other listed matters, while prohibiting compensation for the covered personal injury within those proceedings.

Exemplary damages are different.Section 319 expressly permits exemplary-damages proceedings for conduct resulting in covered personal injury. Exemplary damages punish exceptionally wrongful conduct; they are not a substitute route for ordinary compensatory personal-injury damages.

Generally barredIndependent compensatory damages for covered personal injury.

Potentially survivingProperty loss, specified contract/employment claims, public-law relief and other non-injury losses depending on cause.

Express exceptionExemplary damages under s 319.

Practical consequenceSeparate the physical/personal injury from economic, property, rights-based and exemplary components before pleading.

ACC can bar the remedy even when negligence is provable. Liability analysis and compensation analysis must therefore be done separately.

Primary statuteAccident Compensation Act 2001, ss 317 and 319.

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