Insurance firm made unlawful $3.41m payout

was made – a deal which was later ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court.

A spokesperson for law firm Minterellisonruddwatts, which acted for Whittall and were the instructing solicitors for his counsel Stuart Grieve QC, said the firm wanted to clarify payment information.

‘‘Minterellisonruddwatts confirms that it received a payment of $3.41 million on December 10 2013 which was in turn paid to the District Court on December 11 2013 for distribution to the families immediately affected by the explosions at the Pike River Mine,’’ she said.

‘‘The payment was made by an insurer under the terms of an insurance policy held by Pike River Coal.’’

The company’s receiver was quoted in 2013 as saying the company only had $2m liability insurance cover and most of that had been spent on legal fees by company staff and directors.

Only $156,000 – or about $5380 per family – was available for compensation payments, he said.

The company was unable to pay $3.41m in reparation the court ordered when it was convicted of nine health and safety charges in July 2013.

It is unclear how the insurance cover could pay for the deal involving Whittall’s charges being dropped.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2017 that the deal was an unlawful bargain because it prevented a prosecution.

Harder said the lawyers’ statement raised a number of questions.

He wanted to know which insurance company was involved and what date the insurance policy was taken out.

Harder made a complaint to the New Zealand Law Society in 2020 about the two lawyers involved with the deal: Stuart Grieve, QC, who was Whittall’s lawyer, and Brent Stanaway, who was a Crown solicitor at the time.

The Law Society’s standards committee investigated and found no conduct concerns.