Mike Colson: Stout Street Chambers partner on the class-action lawsuit over the Northland power outage

Businesses are taking class-action over a power outage to of all Northland last year - although the exact loss is still unknown.

In June, an inexperienced worker removed nuts from three legs of a pylon, which toppled, cutting electricity to almost the entire region.

An opt-out class action against Transpower and its lines maintenance contractor is progressing through the courts. 

Stout Street Chambers partner, Mike Colson, says losses will be calculated in due course. 

"It's giving Northland businesses an opportunity to be compensated - and second, an opportunity to incentivise those working on critical infrastructure to do a good job out of it." 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from news Talk ZEDB. Follow
this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Northland's entirely avoidable multi day power outage is headed to court.
Two firms, one of them are law firms, one is
Australian one as New Zealand have launched a class action
lawsuit against Transpower and the contractor Omixom, whose staff member
pulled the nuts out of pylon's legs which caused the
thing to fall over. This whole thing cost Northland businesses millions.
Mike Colson Casey is helping with the case.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
Hime Mike, Hi, he how are you?

Speaker 2 (00:38):
I'm very well, thank you. What does it makes you
think you've got a case here?

Speaker 3 (00:42):
I can't get into the precise prospects of the case
because it's before the courts, but I think the two
independent reports really speak for themselves. There was one that
was commissioned by Transpower and there was one that was
commissioned by the Electricity Authority. There's some fairly strong factual
statements in those reports and that's really the basis for

(01:03):
the case.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Do you have like a handle yourself on how much
business is up in and actually lost during this power outage.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
We don't have that precise a data at the moment.
There were, as you may recall, reports at the time,
there were estimates by economists as to what the losses were.
We have done some sampling amongst the businesses which we
can extrapolate that we probably don't want to or can't
get into the precise details of losses at this time.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Now, can I deduce from the fact that Omni Bridgeway
is funding the case that Omni Bridgeway thinks there's a
reasonable chance of success here?

Speaker 3 (01:37):
Yes, I think that would be Omni Bridgeway's view. There
obviously a commercial litigation funder the use to making decisions
on which litigation they want to back, and they're backing
it with a considerable amount of money.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
When the payout, if there is a payout, when that
is finally determined, is it based on is it likely
to be based on what the actual losses were? Or
is it based on actual losses plus a whole bunch
of other stuff.

Speaker 3 (02:03):
Ultimately, if we were successful, and there's a whole lot
of hypotheticals associated with that, of course, Heather, it would
be based on the businesses actual losses. So we would
be asking them to put forward sworn statements and other
evidence as to the losses they've suffered, and they'd be
distributed proportionately according to that. Again, so I should say

(02:23):
that's all subject to the court's orders and applications at
the time in the future, but that's the usual process.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Now, Mike, I heard a little bit of commentary this
morning on Mike Hoskins Show that suggested that this is
not the key we weigh and we don't want this
kind of litigation coming into the country.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
How do you feel about.

Speaker 3 (02:36):
It, well, in terms of this type of litigation coming
into the country, it's just rereading a Law Commission report
from a couple of years ago which indicated there've been
forty seven class or representative actions approved in New Zealand
in the last twenty years. It's not something that's particularly new.
Some people may oppose class actions, and that's understandable if
they wish to do that. But I suppose what this

(03:00):
is about really is giving northern businesses and opportunity potentially
to be compensated, and second an opportunity potentially to incentivize
those working on critical infrastructure to take reasonable care or
do a good job out of it now, as I
should stress the orders we're seeking what are called opt

(03:20):
out orders. That means that if Northland businesses or a
particular Northland business doesn't want to be part of their litigation,
they can opt out and they will no longer be
part of it. Otherwise they're deemed to be in, but
it's entirely their decision as to whether or not they
want to remain in.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
Yeah, Mike listen, thanks for talking us. We'd appreciated. Mike
Colson KC.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
For more from News Talks AB listen live on air
or online, and keep our shows with you wherever you
go with our podcasts on Irradio