New Zealand’s adventure tourism law will prevent victims from suing for damages
Victims of the White Island tragedy and their families won’t be able to sue for negligence thanks to New Zealand’s 30-year-old no-fault personal injury laws that protect its adventure tourism industry from class actions, legal experts have warned.
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Laws protecting New Zealand’s multimillion-dollar adventure tourism industry will prevent victims of the White Island tragedy and their families from suing for negligence, legal experts warned on Wednesday.
The no-fault personal injury laws that cleared the way for the world’s first commercial bungee-jumping operation over 30 years ago shut the door on class actions and offer one-off lump sum payments capped at a maximum $NZ202,000.
As furious family members of those killed and left fighting for their lives in the volcanic eruption demand answers about why they were allowed to walk on the dangerous crater floor, personal injury expert Gaius Whiffin said New Zealand’s laws were “restrictive”.
Medical fees for locals and tourists are covered by the government’s Accident Compensation Corporation which provides compulsory insurance for personal injury but it means they cannot sue for damages.
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Mr Whiffin said that even if the families and victims bring legal action in Australian courts or against the Florida-based Royal Caribbean cruise line which operates the Ovation of the Seas ship, it was likely New Zealand laws would apply because that is where the accident happened.
“My advice in these cases is that when you are overseas and you are doing something risky, you have to realise that the laws of that country apply and you cannot assume you would be covered in the same way as you would be in Australia,” Turner Freeman partner Ms Whiffin said.
The only exception is exemplary damages, to punish whoever is at fault, and rarely awarded even in Australia.
The tourists who paid $NZ229 for the fatal trip signed waivers that they understood it was an “unpredictable and active volcano” but questions remain about whether they were properly informed of the dangers.
But the laws that contributed to New Zealand becoming the “adventure capital of the world” because tour operators cannot be sued may also have the opposite effect if tourists feel they won’t be properly protected if anything goes wrong, some lawyers have warned.
The ACC website states that it is a “no-fault scheme – the only one of its kind in the world. It applies regardless of who caused the accident – including you. But it also means you can’t sue for any costs that relate to the injury or its negative effects.”
Lawyers said that under Australian law, the victims would be looking at whether the Commonwealth was at fault if it had not updated warnings about the changing conditions on White Island and passing them on, or the tour operator for ensuring their trip was safe or the cruise ship who sold the tours.
