Accident, agency, and liability in New Guinea Highlands compensation practices

Abstract

In mid-1999 an issue arose in the Southern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea whose ramifications widely disrupted social and economic activities throughout the province and continued to do so for some months. The issue arose over whether to classify an event as an 'accident' or not. Dick Mune, a politician who had been ousted as governor of the province in the 1997 national parliamentary elections by Anderson Agiru, had challenged the validity of the election result. The Supreme Court was about to begin the process of deciding on his challenge, and Mr. Mune set out by car to travel to the town of Mt. Hagen in order to catch a plane for the capital city, Port Moresby, to attend the court hearing. On the drive to Mt. H?gen his vehicle left the road and tumbled over a hillside. Mr. Mune was a passenger in the car, and he jumped out to save himself but struck a rock and died from the blow. The driver of the vehicle survived and declared that the brakes had