The tragic case of Mathew Innes, the young man who died while being transported by the police to a mental institution, continues to have legal repercussions. His death in 1994 attracted considerable public attention and a Commission of Inquiry into his death was held. The coroner and the commission concluded that there was a struggle between himself and the police, he was handcuffed in a distressed state. Either by the police restraining him or accidentally, Matthew became asphyxiated. His family have taken civil proceedings against the police and the Health Authority.
Personal injury is defined in the act as excluding cardiac arrest.
This approach may have far reaching implications. A person may suffer a physical trauma causing injury, which ultimately may result in a cardiac arrest, but normally one would regard the trauma as the cause of death, not the cardiac arrest. For example, if a person sustains fatal injuries in a motor vehicle accident, one would describe the deceased as having died from those injuries, not from any episode of cardiac arrest that may flow from the injuries. The family also included a claim that the police breached Mathew Innes' rights under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990. The judge had little difficulty in refusing to strike out this cause of action.