Can I join the EQC Land class action?

Class definition

[1] An owner who made a claim to EQC in relation to residential land insured

under s 19 of the Earthquake Commission Act (the Act).

[2] The residential land suffered increased liquefaction vulnerability (ILV)

damage in the Canterbury Earthquake Sequence that commenced on 4 September

2010 and ended on 23 December 2011.

[3] EQC determined the amount of ILV damage to the residential land and/or made

a payment for ILV damage to the residential land to the owner under s 29 of the Act

after 18 July 2016.

[4] EQC quantified the payment (in full or in part) based on alleged diminution

in/of value of the land by the ILV damage.

[5] The cost to reinstate the land to remediate the ILV damage exceeded the

payment in 3 and 4 above.

[6] There is no binding settlement agreement between EQC and the owner in

respect of any ILV damage claim.

Common issue

Whether, when settling a claim for natural disaster damage for residential land under

s 19 of the Act, EQC misused the DOV approach to determine the indemnity value of

claims for ILV damage to residential land, by:

(a) formulating and applying a policy not in accordance with the Earthquake

Commission case and/or the Act in the respects pleaded in the second amended

statement of claim; and

(b) having a strategy to wrongly minimise its payments by using DOV.