Complaint over Pike deal
New Zealand’s Law Society (NZLS) is considering an investigation into the $3.41 million payment made to families of the Pike River mine tragedy that was ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court.
The confirmation of the Law Society’s consideration of a complaint comes just four days after the 10-year anniversary of the disaster at the West Coast coal mine, which killed 29 men.
After the explosion, WorkSafe believed it had enough evidence to prosecute 12 charges against the mine’s boss, Peter Whittall. But the charges were dropped in 2013, and WorkSafe said it was due to public interest considerations. Whittall indicated he would fight charges and offered to make a voluntary payment of $3.41m provided by his insurer if WorkSafe did not proceed against him. WorkSafe eventually agreed.
However, the Supreme Court ruled in 2017 that the deal, which allowed Whittall to escape charges, was an unlawful bargain, because the suggested arrangement prevented a prosecution. Anna Osborne, whose husband Milton died in the explosion, previously called the payout from Whittall ‘‘blood money’’.
The NZLS is now considering a complaint that takes aim at two lawyers involved in the $3.41m deal.
In a letter to former lawyer Christopher Harder, the society said it was considering his complaint, which questioned its lack of action over lawyers involved with the deal: Stuart Grieve QC, who was Whittall’s lawyer, and Brent Stanaway, who was a crown solicitor at the time. Harder said the two lawyers have ‘‘brought the legal profession into disrepute’’ by entering into the ‘‘unlawful’’ agreement, which was ‘‘stifling a prosecution by deliberately misleading and deceiving the sentencing judge (DC Jane Farish)’’.
Harder did not wish be considered a complainant or a party to the complaint, but described himself as ‘‘a messenger’’. He felt the society should have begun the investigation without his correspondence. He told Stuff: ‘‘I hope the fact that the law society is finally looking at this unlawful agreement to stifle the WorkSafe prosecutions gives the families of the deceased miners here some little peace of mind and a little hope that there might still be a little justice to come.’’
In a letter to Harder on Monday, NZLS national complaints manager Nikki De La Mare said his concerns would be referred to a Standards Committee ‘‘for consideration of commencing an investigation of its own motion’’. A law society spokeswoman said she was prevented by law on commenting about whether the society had received a complaint.
The spokeswoman said when a complaint was received, the Standards Committee may inquire into the complaint, give a direction for negotiation and mediation, or decide to take no action.
The 2017 Supreme Court case was initiated in 2014 by two killed miners’ families – Anna Osborne and Sonya Rockhouse. They sought a judicial review of the WorkSafe decision not to prosecute. They also asked the Supreme Court to overturn a Court of Appeal ruling that upheld the WorkSafe NZ decision in 2013 to drop charges against Whittall as long as he paid the $3.41m.