Worksafe deal with Whittall ‘unlawful’
Worksafe’s lawyer has faced close questioning on whether the decision to drop charges against the Pike River mine boss was an ‘‘unlawful bargain’’ struck in return for $3.41 million.
Two women who lost family in the Pike River mine disaster want New Zealand’s highest court to say the deal done with mine company chief executive Peter Whittall was wrong.
Sonya Rockhouse lost her 21-year-old son, Ben, in the 2010 disaster, and Anna Osborne lost her husband, Milton.
They went to the Supreme Court yesterday, appealing against a decision to refuse a judicial review of the decision by Worksafe NZ to drop the charges against Whittall.
They say dropping the charges was unprincipled and unlawful, but their lawyer agreed it was now too late to have Whittall face the charges.
Defending the decision to drop the charges, Deputy Solicitor-general Aaron Martin
Worksafe.
He faced close questioning from three in particular of the five Supreme Court judges, about the decision to drop the charges against Whittall.
Martin said it was not an unlawful bargain, as Rockhouse and Osborne’s case alleged.
A lot of factors were taken into account, including that the hearing of the charges against Whittall would have appeared for taken four or five months and covered a vast amount of material.
There were also questions about whether witnesses would be available to give evidence.
If it had just been a case of agreeing to drop the charges if the money was paid, that would have crossed the line, Martin agreed.
Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias asked if the effect of an agreement being made was that the prosecution did not go ahead because of the payment of compensation, why was that not contrary to public policy.
Martin said it was not contrary to public policy because the other public interest was the significant one in victims being compensated.
The women’s lawyer, Nigel Hampton, QC, said Whittall was a director, and directors could not hide behind a corporate veil.
Twenty-nine men died when the West Coast coal mine exploded on November 19, 2010.
Whittall initially faced 12 health and safety charges and pleaded not guilty.
Pike River Coal, the mine owner, pleaded guilty to nine charges and was fined $760,000.
It was also ordered to pay $3.41m reparation, but its financial state meant it was doubtful the money would ever be paid.
Whittall offered to make a voluntary payment of $3.41m from his insurer if Worksafe did not offer any evidence against him. All charges were dropped in December 2013.
Osborne, who previously called it ‘‘blood money’’, said the families were not asked whether they accepted the $3.41m, which amounted to $110,000 per family.
At the start of the Supreme Court hearing Hampton said it was a case about whether the criminal justice system applied to everyone, rich or poor, or whether it was a system in which payment of money could be used to end a prosecution.
The bargain reached between Whittall and Worksafe was unprecedented, unprincipled and unlawful, he said.
The hearing was expected to end yesterday.