Source: New Zealand Government
The Crown will not appeal the Court of Appeal decision in the Dodds v Southern Response case, Grant Robertson announced today.
“Southern Response will be paying the damages awarded by the Court to Mr and Mrs Dodds shortly. The Crown was already meeting their legal costs for this appeal.
“The Government wants to find a fair and enduring resolution for the outstanding Canterbury earthquake claims, and that means being able to use the findings of the Court of Appeal to help inform and respond to other policyholders who are in a similar situation to Mr and Mrs Dodds.
“The court decision provides us with greater clarity on this issue but as we are now in the pre-election period decisions on options for how Southern Response could best respond to other affected policyholders will take place in earnest post-election,” Grant Robertson said.
“I am pleased for Mr and Mrs Dodds that this process is now concluded for them. We acknowledge that this has been a difficult process for them, and Minister Robertson and I have again extended a sincere apology to them for the fact that they had to go through this appeal process,” Megan Woods said.
“As we explained when the decision was made to appeal the High Court decision, this appeal was never about just Mr and Mrs Dodds’ individual case, but about needing greater clarity from the courts on how to fairly apply the findings to other policyholders in a similar situation.”
