You are here:
NZLII >>
Databases >>
Human Rights Review Tribunal of New Zealand >>
2023 >>
[2023] NZHRRT 35
Database Search
| Name Search
| Recent Decisions
| Noteup
| LawCite
| Download
| Help
Horrell v Banyan Pacific Capital Ltd [2023] NZHRRT 35 (31 October 2023)
Last Updated: 31 October 2023
(1) ORDER PROHIBITING PUBLICATION OF THE NAMES, ADDRESSES, OR OTHER
DETAILS WHICH MIGHT LEAD TO THE IDENTIFICATION OF CANCER SOCIETY
CLIENTS OR
THEIR FAMILY MEMBERS, OTHER THAN PLAINTIFF WHOSE ADDRESS ONLY IS NOT TO BE
PUBLISHED
(2) ORDER PROHIBITING PUBLICATION OF THE NAMES, ADDRESSES, OR OTHER
DETAILS WHICH MIGHT LEAD TO THE IDENTIFICATION OF NATURALWEAR
CLIENTS
(3) ORDER PREVENTING SEARCH OF THE TRIBUNAL FILE WITHOUT LEAVE OF THE
CHAIRPERSON OR TRIBUNAL
IN THE HUMAN RIGHTS REVIEW TRIBUNAL [2023] NZHRRT 35 I TE
TARAIPIUNARA MANA TANGATA

Reference No. HRRT 030/2019
UNDER THE PRIVACY ACT 2020
BETWEEN CHERYL CHRISTINE HORRELL PLAINTIFF
AND BANYAN PACIFIC CAPITAL LIMITED TRADING AS NATURALWEAR
FIRST DEFENDANT
AND NWSI LIMITED TRADING AS
NATURALWEAR SECOND DEFENDANT
AT CHRISTCHURCH BEFORE:
Ms MG Coleman, Deputy Chairperson Ms WV Gilchrist, Member
Ms ST Scott QSM, Member
REPRESENTATION:
Ms CC Horrell in person
Mr R Brady, Director of Naturalwear, for first and second defendants DATE
OF HEARING: 30-31 March, 1 April 2021
DATE OF DECISION: 31 October 2023
(REDACTED) DECISION OF TRIBUNAL1
1 This decision is to be cited as Horrell v Banyan Pacific
Capital Ltd [2023] NZHRRT 35. (Due to publication restrictions, the names
and/or addresses of Naturalwear and Cancer Society clients referred to in this
decision have
been anonymised or redacted.)
OVERVIEW OF CLAIM
- [1] Cheryl
Horrell is a breast cancer survivor. She received her cancer diagnosis over 35
years ago, the treatment for which included
a mastectomy.
- [2] Ms
Horrell purchased a number of breast prostheses through the Canterbury-West
Coast Division of the New Zealand Cancer Society (Cancer
Society), which offered
this service for a number of years until, in 2016, it decided to discontinue
it.
- [3] In
October 2018, Ms Horrell received direct marketing in her mailbox from
Naturalwear, which is a retailer of breast prostheses. Naturalwear
was the
trading name for Banyan Pacific Capital Ltd (Banyan).
- [4] Ms
Horrell alleged that Naturalwear was able to send this marketing material to her
because it had collected her health information
in breach of rr 1 to 4
of the Health Information Privacy Code 1994 (the HIPC)2 and that
its use in direct marketing also breached the HIPC, r 10.
- [5] Ms
Horrell argued that Naturalwear had wrongly collected her health information in
two separate ways from her Cancer Society purchases.
First, it collected her
warranty card which she said it had no right to hold. Secondly, she claimed that
her health information was
taken from the Cancer Society database which she
claimed had been unlawfully acquired by Naturalwear.
- [6] Prior
to the hearing, Richard Brady, who represented Naturalwear, sought to substitute
NWSI Ltd for Banyan as the defendant in the
proceeding. He said that following a
restructure, two new companies were created, NWNI Ltd and NWSI Ltd. These
companies both used
the trading name Naturalwear, with NWSI Ltd being the South
Island retailer.
- [7] Ms
Horrell objected to the substitution as she was concerned this would enable the
avoidance of liability for the privacy breach.
No documents were filed to show
that NWSI Ltd had assumed the liabilities of Banyan. To accommodate the current
trading position
and Ms Horrell’s concerns, both NWSI Ltd and Banyan are
named defendants and, in this decision, Naturalwear is used to refer
to both
Banyan and NWSI Ltd, as applicable.
- [8] Naturalwear
accepted that it breached r 10 of the HIPC by using Ms Horrell’s health
information for marketing purposes, but
said it collected that information from
a warranty card sent to Medivex Healthcare Ltd (Medivex) by the Cancer Society
and not from
the Cancer Society database.
- [9] Medivex
is an importer and distributor of breast prostheses. It supplies its products to
a number of retailers, including to Naturalwear
and the Cancer Society (when it
was offering its retail service). Mr Brady is the sole director of Banyan, NWSI
Ltd, and Medivex.
THE ISSUES
- [10] For
Ms Horrell to succeed in her claim she must first establish that one of the HIPC
rules has been breached.3 If she is able to do so, she must then also
establish that
2 The Health Information Privacy Code 1994 has now been replaced
by a new Code promulgated in 2020. The Privacy Act 1993 (Privacy Act)
has been
repealed and replaced with the Privacy Act 2020. However, all references to
“the Privacy Act” and “the
HIPC” in this decision are
those in operation at the time of the alleged privacy breach which are those in
the 1993 Act and
the 1994 Code.
3 See Privacy Act 1993, s 66(1)(a).
her privacy has been interfered with by Naturalwear by showing that she has
suffered one or more of the kinds of harm set out in
the Privacy Act 1993 (the
Privacy Act), s 66(1)(b). It is only once both a breach of HIPC rules and harm
have been established that
the Tribunal can consider whether it would be
appropriate to grant a remedy.
- [11] It
is not in dispute that the information used for the direct marketing in issue
was Ms Horrell’s health information as defined
by the HIPC, cl 4(1). Nor
is it in dispute that Naturalwear was a health agency as defined in cl
4(2).
- [12] It
is also not in dispute that Naturalwear breached r 10 of the HIPC. This breach
was acknowledged by Naturalwear in its statement
of reply to the claim. Nor, by
the end of the hearing, was it in dispute that the breach of r 10 had resulted
in an interference
with Ms Horrell’s privacy, and Mr Brady accepted that a
small award of damages would be appropriate.
- [13] Further,
it is also not in dispute that Naturalwear held a copy of Ms Horrell’s
warranty card, which had been shared with Naturalwear
by Medivex. However, the
source of the health information used for direct marketing is in dispute. Ms
Horrell’s position is
that it came from the Cancer Society database while
Mr Brady’s position was that it came from her warranty card which had been
sent to Medivex by the Cancer Society.
- [14] Mr
Brady accepted that if Medivex was not entitled to share the warranty cards it
held with Naturalwear, then Naturalwear had breached
the HIPC collection rules
as well as r 10. He also accepted that if the Tribunal were to find that the
information had been collected
from the Cancer Society database Ms
Horrell’s health information had been collected inconsistently with HIPC
rules.
- [15] The
issues therefore fall under four headings:
[15.1] Was the source of Ms Horrell’s health information used by
Naturalwear for direct marketing Ms Horrell’s warranty card,
or was it the
Cancer Society database?
[15.2] Did Naturalwear breach any of the collection rules set out in rr 1
to 4 of the HIPC?
[15.3] If there was a breach of the collection rules, did that breach (or
breaches) result in an interference with Ms Horrell’s privacy?
[15.4] If there has been an interference with privacy, either through a
breach of the collection rules or the already acknowledged interference
with
privacy arising out of the breach of r 10, what is the appropriate remedy (if
any)?
WHAT WAS THE SOURCE OF MS HORRELL’S HEALTH INFORMATION
USED BY NATURALWEAR FOR DIRECT MARKETING TO HER?
- [16] Given
the factual dispute as to whether the health information used for the direct
marketing was acquired from the Cancer Society
database or from Ms
Horrell’s warranty card, it is important to set out in some detail the
evidence of both parties on that
question.
Evidence of Cheryl Horrell
- [17] Ms
Horrell’s evidence was that in the second week of October 2018 she
received a flyer from Naturalwear in her letterbox. It
was A4 size, folded in
half with her name and address printed electronically at the top of the page.
There was no envelope, stamp
or postmark which led Ms Horrell to assume it had
been hand delivered. The flyer was
addressed to Cheryl Horrell at [redacted], Christchurch, and advised that
Naturalwear was offering a prosthetic fitting service in
Christchurch and that
Addie [Adrienne Harrison] was available for home visits.
- [18] Following
receipt of the Naturalwear flyer, Ms Horrell said she phoned Ms Harrison to ask
how the company knew that she had had breast
cancer. According to Ms Horrell, Ms
Harrison claimed not to know the answer to that question but gave Ms Horrell the
phone number
of Naturalwear’s head office for her to make further
inquiries.
- [19] Ms
Horrell said she then rang Naturalwear’s head office. Her evidence was
that the woman who answered the phone responded angrily
stating that the issue
had been sorted ages ago. Ms Horrell said that the woman gave a range of excuses
as to why she received the
marketing material, including that Naturalwear was an
approved provider for the Ministry of Health from which Ms Horrell understood
that its approved provider status explained how Naturalwear had her
records.
- [20] Ms
Horrell also said she contacted the Cancer Society and was told that
Ms Harrison had taken a copy of its breast cancer
records when she left its
employment and that the Cancer Society had notified the Privacy Commissioner of
its concerns.
- [21] Ms
Horrell then engaged in correspondence with Naturalwear. In a letter dated 1
November 2018, Ms Horrell recounted the conversation
with the staff member and
indicated that she was dissatisfied with the response about how her personal
information had been obtained.
Ms Horrell also advised Naturalwear that after
receiving a number of conflicting and unsatisfactory responses from staff she
had
contacted both the Cancer Society and the Privacy Commissioner. After
receiving no reply to her letter of 1 November
2018, she sent a
follow-up email to Naturalwear on 29 November 2018 requesting a
response.
- [22] On 3
December 2018, Mr Brady responded in an email sent from a Medivex email address.
He advised Ms Horrell that her name would have
been added to its customer
database after purchasing either an Amoena or Silima brand of prosthesis via the
Cancer Society. The email
further said that “[w]arranty cards of customer
purchases of those products had been registered with the manufacturer hence
how
we obtained your name”.
- [23] After
receiving that email, Ms Horrell contacted the manufacturers of Amoena and
Silima products inquiring whether those companies
sent warranty card information
to Medivex. Both advised her that they did not.
- [24] Ms
Horrell also told the Tribunal that she had received an earlier advertising
pamphlet from Naturalwear in late 2016 but, due to
the effects of a recent head
injury, she did not make a complaint at that time.
Evidence of Elizabeth Chesterman
- [25] Extensive
evidence was also given by Elizabeth Chesterman, the Chief Executive of the
Canterbury-West Coast division of the Cancer
Society about the Cancer
Society’s exit from its breast prosthesis retail and fitting service in
October 2016 as well as the
concerns she held that its database had been
acquired (and used) by Naturalwear without permission.
- [26] In
that evidence Ms Chesterman referred to an approach to her by Ms Harrison in
April 2016 regarding a proposal which had been put
to Ms Harrison by Mr Brady.
The proposal was that Medivex/Naturalwear would employ Ms Harrison part-time if
the Cancer Society would
continue to offer her a compatible part-time role. In
return, it was proposed that Medivex/Naturalwear would rent the fitting room
at
the Cancer Society and provide a commercial service on its behalf. Ms
Chesterman said that she emailed Mr Brady on 7 June
2016 to advise the
proposal was not acceptable, primarily because any service offered by
Naturalwear needed to be independent from
the Cancer Society. Ms Chesterman
further said she advised Mr Brady that the Cancer Society had been reviewing the
delivery of its
prothesis service and would be receptive to exiting that service
if there were a guaranteed acceptable community alternative for
its
clients.
- [27] Following
the decision by the Cancer Society to exit its prothesis service, Ms
Harrison accepted a position with Naturalwear.
She resigned from the Cancer
Society on 17 August 2016, with that resignation taking effect from 7 October
2016.
- [28] In
the lead-up to the Cancer Society exiting its retail business, Ms Chesterman
said there were several discussions held with both
Mr Brady and Ms Harrison
regarding access to Cancer Society client records. Ms Chesterman further said
that following the Cancer
Society’s decision to quit its breast
prothesis fitting service Mr Brady again requested access to the Cancer Society
database
so that Naturalwear (on behalf of the Cancer Society) could notify the
Cancer Society’s clients of its exit from the prosthesis
fitting role. Ms
Chesterman said that the request was firmly declined, at which point she
reiterated the Cancer Society’s position
which was that only the Cancer
Society would have contact with its clients to ensure their total
confidentiality and
privacy. Ms Chesterman also said that this position was
reinforced with Ms Harrison on numerous occasions.
- [29] Up
until the Cancer Society decided to exit its retail service, Ms Chesterman said
the details of clients using that service were
recorded on a simple hardcopy
index card system. Ms Chesterman said it was necessary to create a database so
that the clients could
be notified of the exit. All clients who had received
services from 2012 onwards were included on the database, including Ms Horrell.
Ms Chesterman said a “dummy” name, “Amanda Birch”, was
inserted for mail monitoring purposes. The address
for Amanda Birch was that of
Amanda Derrick, a Cancer Society employee.
- [30] Ms
Chesterman said that the compilation of the database was undertaken by Ms
Harrison and two other employees, one of whom was
Amanda Derrick. According to
Ms Chesterman, sometime after mid-August 2016 she asked Ms Derrick to take
control of the database that
was being separately worked on by Ms Derrick, Ms
Harrison and the third staff member, and which ultimately involved merging all
entries
into a single spreadsheet. It was only at this final stage that the
dummy entry for Amanda Birch was added to the database.
- [31] On
23 September 2016, the Cancer Society sent a letter to its clients on this
database, advising them that it was exiting its breast
prothesis fitting
service.
- [32] In
her evidence Ms Chesterman spoke about an incident which occurred on 28
September 2016, shortly before Ms Harrison’s
final day and shortly
after the 23 September 2016 letter was sent out. Ms Chesterman said that Ms
Harrison had been trying
to sort the spreadsheet but was doing it incorrectly
which resulted in a misalignment of the columns. Ms Harrison sought assistance
from another staff member and the problem was resolved. On learning about the
episode Ms Chesterman became concerned as there was
no apparent reason for Ms
Harrison to be accessing or
manipulating the completed database and instructed Ms Derrick to remove the
database from a common computer drive to a secure drive.
- [33] On
Thursday 26 January 2017, Ms Chesterman was alerted to the fact that Naturalwear
had sent a letter to Amanda Birch (Amanda Derrick)
advertising its services,
announcing Ms Harrison’s appointment to Naturalwear, and offering
former Cancer Society
clients a discount voucher. Ms Chesterman
said that Amanda Birch/Derrick’s details could only have come
from
the database records because she was not an actual client but the fictional
quality control entry. She had never been diagnosed
with cancer, had never
purchased a breast prosthesis, had never completed a warranty card, and had
never made a Ministry of Health
claim.
- [34] Ms
Chesterman’s evidence was that the only way in which Naturalwear could
have known the names and addresses of the former Cancer
Society clients to whom
letters were sent was through Ms Harrison.
- [35] On
30 January 2017, Ms Chesterman instigated a search of all electronic files and
emails sent from the Cancer Society to Medivex,
Mr Brady or Ms Harrison in the
period between August and October 2016. This search did not indicate any data
had been transferred
but Ms Chesterman further said the search could not
identify data transferred via a personal email account accessed from the Cancer
Society computer system or data transferred onto an external device.
- [36] At
that same time Ms Chesterman said that other former clients of the
Cancer Society rang her to advise that they had received
letters also. Some of
those clients advised they had also received an earlier letter from
Naturalwear in December 2016 prior
to Christmas.
- [37] Amanda
Derrick did not receive the December 2016 letter. Ms Chesterman believes the
reason for this was that the name and address
of Amanda Birch had been added
only at the very final stages of the completion of the database and that an
earlier iteration of the
Cancer Society database was used for the first mailout
by Naturalwear in December 2016.
- [38] Ms
Chesterman said that although she only had first-hand knowledge of five women
who received the January 2017 Naturalwear letter,
she decided that it was
necessary for the Cancer Society to send out a further letter advising the
Cancer Society’s former
clients of its concern that their names and
addresses had been illegally accessed. This letter was sent on 3 February 2017.
The
Cancer Society also advised the Offices of the Privacy and Health and
Disability Commissioners, as well as the Ministry
of Health of the suspected
breach.
- [39] Following
the receipt by Cancer Society clients of the 3 February 2017 letter, the Cancer
Society received numerous calls about people
concerned about the breach and the
explanations given to them after they contacted Naturalwear. Ms Chesterman said
that she took
notes of her conversations with these callers at the time the
conversations took place, which she used when preparing her witness
statement.
- [40] That
aspect of her evidence is set out below as it was filed originally in her
written witness statement which she later read into
the record. The written
statement more
transparently identifies the spelling mistakes which were duplicated by
Naturalwear in its marketing.4
...
- A
B received a letter from Naturalwear, along with two other women she knows (C D
and E F deceased) at the same time. A told me she
was concerned how Naturalwear
had obtained her details so contacted the Naturalwear Auckland Office telephone
number (0800 612 612)
and was told by someone at that office that "the Cancer
Society had sold their data base to Medivex/Naturalwear".
- A
B has supplied me with a copy of the letter she received from Naturalwear and it
contains the identical details as recorded on our
spreadsheet, including errors.
Her name is spelt incorrectly as "[redacted]" and her address has a lower case
"l" in the word Lane.
These mistakes are not replicated in the Cancer Society's
hard copy card record system, and I therefore believe that these were the
result
of a data entry mistake at the time of compiling the spreadsheet. It is also
unlikely that A would have written her name and
address incorrectly on any
Warranty Card.
- An
entry on our spreadsheet records the name GH GH, instead of GH I (on our card
system) or GH J (married name). Interestingly, G
J told me that she received the
Naturalwear letter addressed to GH GH, which she has forwarded to the Cancer
Society. I believe this
is a data entry mistake on the Cancer Society's part and
is unlikely to have been recorded by G J on her Warranty Card or the Ministry
of
Health's subsidy claim forms, if that had been the source of Naturalwear's
data.
- In
addition, on the Cancer Society's data base, G’s address is incorrectly
recorded as [redacted] road (lower case "r") and
the letter from Naturalwear
received by G contains the same error.
- K
L told me that she called the Auckland 0800 number for Naturalwear,
regarding the letter from Naturalwear sent to her sister-in-law, M L. M
no longer lives in New Zealand. K said that she was told by Debbie at
Naturalwear that the company had been “given the data base by
the Cancer Society”. This is not true.
- Another
client, N O, told me that she had contacted the Cancer Society, the Ministry of
Health and Naturalwear, demanding information on the source of her name.
N told me that she was told by Debbie that it came from the Amoena Breast Form
Warranty
Cards. When she said this was not ethical and she would be taking it
further, Debbie from Naturalwear said “it would be a shame if it
went further and that if N did she would be denying their service to many other
women in New Zealand”.
- P
Q, a client on our data base told me she also received a letter from
Naturalwear, contacted them asking how her name had been obtained
and was told
it was from the Amoena Warranty. P told me she was seriously concerned about
this, so contacted Amoena (Australia)
Joy.Magee@amoena.com and was informed by email (copy forwarded to the Cancer
Society for our records) that they had no record of her details and are very
clear that the warranty names must not be used for any other purpose other than
proof of purchase for warranty claims made within
a two year period. I
understand that P did not purchase Amoena products which is why she is not on
the Amoena warranty system.
- During
a phone call I had with Addie Harrison on Thursday 9 February she told me that
the details were sourced from the Amoena Warranty
cards. I asked her how this
could explain women purchasing an Anita product from another company, Breast
Care Products? She told me she wasn't sure, but that Medivex used to sell
Anita prostheses, however a search I conducted on the internet revealed
Breast Care Products were established in June 2010 (prior to our 2012
cut- off date for our spreadsheet).
- G
J told me she made face to face contact with Addie Harrison on Friday 10
February 2016. This was after my phone call conversation
with Addie the previous
day. G told me that [sic] was told by Addie that Naturalwear had obtained
the client names from the Ministry of Health.
- R
S advised the Cancer Society that she had talked directly to Addie Harrison and
asked about the source of her name. She told me
that Addie cried on the
telephone and said she had no knowledge of any of the issues she had
raised.
12 T U told me that on 13 February 2017 she telephoned the Naturalwear
Auckland office and was informed that her name was sourced from the Amoena
warranty cards.
13. V W telephoned the Cancer Society on 13 February 2017 to advise that his
wife, X, had died three years ago and he was most distressed
to have received
mail from both Naturalwear and the Cancer Society. He told the Cancer
Society that he had phoned Addie earlier and she had told him that X’s
name came
from suppliers in Melbourne and Germany.
- [41] Ms
Chesterman added by way of summary:5
By the time communication ceased with Richard Brady in May 2017 the Cancer
Society was aware of at least thirty women who had received
unsolicited letters
from Naturalwear. Eight of these women had purchased non
Medivex/Naturalwear products, so their names could not have been sourced
from warranty cards held by Naturalwear. Two of these women are deceased.
In addition, the plaintiff, Cheryl Horrell, has since come forward ... the
address on both the Cancer
Society’s data-base spreadsheet and on the
letter she received from Naturalwear bear the same error –
[redacted] rather than its correct spelling of [redacted]. The Cancer
Society had entered this incorrectly into their spreadsheet, and a likely
explanation is that it was transposed with
this error from the Cancer
Society’s spreadsheet to Naturalwear’s data base. It is very
unlikely that Ms Horrell would have spelt her own street name incorrectly on
warranty information purportedly
held by Naturalwear.
- [42] In
light of Ms Chesterman’s concerns that Naturalwear had somehow obtained
the names and addresses of Cancer Society clients,
in February 2017 Ms
Chesterman engaged the services of Mike Kyne, from Kyne Management Services, to
investigate the privacy breach.
- [43] Ms
Chesterman said there were a series of communications between Mr Kyne and Mr
Brady between early February 2017 and May 2017. She
referred in her evidence to
discussions taking place both in person and by email. Ms Chesterman said that
despite the Cancer Society’s
evidence being presented to Mr Brady, he
maintained the position that the Cancer Society database had not been acquired
by Naturalwear,
and that the information used for marketing came via 120 Cancer
Society customers’ warranty cards held by Medivex. However,
Ms Chesterman
also referred to a letter dated 13 April 2017 from Mr Brady to Mr Kyne. In that
letter Mr Brady said:
We accept there may be a few names on the Naturalwear database that must have
come from the Cancer Society list somehow. I can not
[sic] speculate how this
happened, yet I understand this [is] a small number – perhaps 5 –
when compared to the overall
database of 700-800 names.
- [44] Ms
Chesterman’s evidence was that communication continued until 19 May 2017
when the parties met face to face at the Cancer
Society in Christchurch. A
letter dated 8 June 2017 sent by Ms Chesterman to Mr Brady indicated there were
differing interpretations
of the outcome of that meeting and that the Cancer
Society reserved the right to take whatever steps it considered necessary to
protect
its integrity and the confidentiality of its clients.
- [45] According
to Ms Chesterman, the Cancer Society reluctantly made a decision not to pursue
the matter in the courts due to the cost
involved and from a desire not to
re-traumatise and publicise the status of its clients.
Evidence of Richard Brady
- [46] Mr
Brady’s evidence was that the names and addresses of Cancer Society
clients had come from warranty cards that had been sent
to Medivex as the
importer and distributor of prosthetic products. Warranty cards contained two
parts. The first part was the customer
or client copy which was given to the
customer when a purchase was made. The other part was the store copy which was
supposed to
be retained by the retailer.
- [47] Mr
Brady said that the store copy part of the warranty was received by Medivex when
exchanges or refunds were requested. He also said
that on other occasions the
store copy warranty card, which was supposed to be kept by the retailer, was
received by Medivex on an
unsolicited basis. He accepted this was not normal
practice but did occur. His estimate was that it occurred in only 5 to 10 per
cent of cases. Mr Brady accepted that Ms Harrison had sent store copies of
warranty cards to Medivex shortly before she left the
Cancer Society but said
this would not have amounted to any more than 10. He was not able to advise
whose warranty cards were sent
by Ms Harrison.
- [48] Mr
Brady’s evidence was that Medivex had held around 120 store copy warranty
cards that belonged to former customers of the
Cancer Society which were used by
Naturalwear for marketing purposes. Mr Brady said that only these women were
sent the marketing
letters by Naturalwear. Mr Brady further said that as there
was no evidence that a mail out to the 700–900 names on the Cancer
Society
database ever took place, the health information for direct marketing to former
Cancer Society clients must have come from
store copy warranty cards not from
the database.
- [49] Mr
Brady said that after his discussions with the Cancer Society in 2017, at its
request he shredded all warranty cards held by Medivex
and Naturalwear for the
approximately 120 former Cancer Society clients on its database, and also
removed all other references to
those clients from all business (including
computer) records. The shredding of the warranty cards was the reason, Mr Brady
said,
that Naturalwear was unable to produce the warranty cards as evidence of
the replication of the spelling errors.
- [50] Mr
Brady accepted that Ms Horrell’s information was not removed from the
database as part of that process although he said that
the warranty card would
have been destroyed.
- [51] In
the lead-up to the hearing, Mr Brady sought the services of an IT specialist to
investigate if any of the cards remained stored
on the computer system of
Naturalwear and/or Medivex and provided scanned versions of part of 33 warranty
cards retrieved as part
of Naturalwear’s evidence. This included a scanned
copy of Ms Horrell’s warranty card.
- [52] Mr
Brady did not ask the IT specialist to locate copies of the 120 letters he
claimed were sent to former Cancer Society clients.
Nor did he ask the IT
specialist to locate the deleted version of the database used to send out those
letters. Mr Brady’s reason
for not doing so was that once he had located
scanned versions of the store copy of the warranty cards, he felt he had what he
considered
was critical for his case. Mr Brady said that cost was an issue and
he wanted to ensure that any money spent on the forensic investigation
of his
computer records provided value to Naturalwear. Mr Brady said that $1,000 had
been spent on this exercise before he called
it to a halt.
- [53] Mr
Brady accepted that the warranty card he held for Ms Horrell did not replicate
the spelling error in the marketing letter sent
to her. The warranty card had
her street address spelt as “[redacted]”, whereas the marketing
material was addressed
to
Ms Horrell at “[redacted]”, the same spelling of her address as on
the Cancer Society database. Mr Brady’s explanation
for Ms Horrell’s
address being spelt identically in the marketing material and in the Cancer
Society database was that the
same human error was made when the warranty card
information was typed into Naturalwear’s database.
- [54] Mr
Brady’s explanation of the other identical spelling errors referred
to by Ms Chesterman, the spelling of A B’s
name as
“[redacted]” and Ms J’s first name GH being repeated as her
family name instead of her actual family name
J, were also human errors despite
accepting that the mistake made in the case of Ms J was an unusual
one.
- [55] In
relation to the letter sent to the dummy (quality control) entry in the name of
Amanda Birch, Mr Brady speculated in his closing
submissions that a bogus
warranty card in Amanda Birch’s name was sent to Naturalwear to
“entrap” it. This was
denied by Ms Chesterman, who said that she
did not instruct anyone to do so and that no one would have taken this step
without
it being directed by her.
- [56] Mr
Brady undertook a comparison between the spelling of names and addresses on the
33 warranty cards Naturalwear provided as part
of its evidence and those same
names on the Cancer Society database. That exercise demonstrated that while the
spelling of some of
the names and addresses were the same, approximately half,
including that of Ms Horrell, were not. The differences included Naturalwear
holding warranty cards for former Cancer Society clients that were not on the
Cancer Society’s database, along with differences
in the spelling of names
and/or addresses between the warranty card information and the Cancer Society
database.
- [57] Mr
Brady said this demonstrated that errors were common and submitted that it was
possible that the now destroyed warranty cards contained
the same information as
the Cancer Society database or that the same errors were made when transcribing
information from the warranty
cards to Naturalwear’s database as were made
by the Cancer Society when compiling its database from its index card system.
Mr
Brady submitted this exercise supported Naturalwear’s claim that the names
and addresses it used to compile its database
for direct marketing were sourced
from warranty cards and not the Cancer Society database.
- [58] Mr
Brady also denied the suggestion put to him by Ms Horrell that Naturalwear had
improperly received a copy of her warranty card
from Ms Harrison. He said that
it was either received in error or was sent to Naturalwear because Ms Horrell
was dissatisfied with
her fitting at the Cancer Society, and the Cancer Society
inquired about replacement products.
- [59] Ms
Horrell asked Mr Brady why Ms Harrison had not been called to give evidence. Mr
Brady’s reason for not doing so was that
Ms Harrison was busy doing her
job and that as he was privy to how the warranty cards had been handled, he did
not consider her evidence
would have added significantly to the
hearing.
- [60] In
relation to his comment in the letter to Mr Kyne (referred to above at [43]) that a few of the names on
Naturalwear’s database must have come from the Cancer Society list, Mr
Brady said that he made
the comment because of the dummy client, Amanda
Birch, receiving a letter but also said he should not have made it. He said
that
at that stage he did not have the copies of the warranty cards that he now has
which he submitted demonstrated the letters were
sent based on information from
warranty cards.
- [61] In
response to questioning from the Tribunal, Mr Brady gave further evidence about
his discussions with the Cancer Society and Mr
Kyne arising out of the Cancer
Society’s
concern that Naturalwear had improperly accessed its database. Mr Brady said
that he had shown Ms Chesterman and Mr Kyne a couple
of warranty cards, although
he did not challenge Ms Chesterman’s evidence that she was not shown any
warranty cards. He further
said that it never occurred to him to show them all
of the warranty cards or to show them his database of former Cancer Society
clients
to establish the match between it and the warranty cards Naturalwear
held.
- [62] This
is somewhat surprising given the seriousness of the allegations being levelled
at Naturalwear by the Cancer Society, not to mention
the potential reputation
damage as evidenced by the 100 plus angry callers whom Mr Brady said phoned
Naturalwear following their
receipt of the letter from the Cancer Society.
However, Mr Brady said that the lack of specific details from the Cancer Society
during
this time meant it was difficult to address the complaints. He described
the process as “like shooting at ghosts”.
What was the source of Ms Horrell’s personal health
information?
- [63] The
Tribunal was presented with two options as to the source of Ms Horrell’s
health information that was used by Naturalwear
for direct marketing purposes.
Either it came from the database, or it came from her warranty card.
- [64] We
accept that Medivex was sent the store copy part of warranty cards when there
were requests for refunds or replacements of faulty
products. We also accept
Medivex could have been sent copies of warranty cards in error, although on Mr
Brady’s own evidence
this number was small. We further accept that Ms
Horrell’s warranty card was sent to Medivex.
- [65] We
do not accept, however, Mr Brady’s primary contention that if Naturalwear
can produce Ms Horrell’s warranty card then
we must accept its position,
that all the information used for direct marketing came from warranty cards. Mr
Brady’s evidence
that warranty card information was used for direct
marketing does not exclude information from other sources also being used for
that purpose as well.
- [66] Mr
Brady further submitted that the Tribunal is not able to reach a factual finding
that the source of the health information was
the Cancer Society database
because Naturalwear had shredded the warranty cards it held at the request of
the Cancer Society, meaning
that Naturalwear now is unable to establish the
warranty cards as the source of Ms Horrell’s marketing material.
- [67] That
submission mistakes the standard of proof that applies in this case. Ms Horrell
does not have to prove her case beyond reasonable
doubt. The question we must
consider is whether it is more likely than not that the Cancer Society database
was the source of Ms
Horrell’s health information used for marketing. If
there is cogent, credible evidence that this was the case, the Tribunal
is
entitled to so find.
- [68] In
our view there is evidence which demonstrates that some information was taken
from the Cancer Society database.
- [69] First,
there is the direct marketing to Amanda Birch, the dummy entry entered into the
Cancer Society database for quality control
mail monitoring purposes. As noted
earlier, the address for Amanda Birch was that of Amanda Derrick who worked for
the Cancer Society
and who was responsible for the compilation of the Cancer
Society database. As Amanda Birch is fictitious no warranty card for prosthetic
purchases would ever have been received by Medivex or Naturalwear in the name of
Amanda Birch.
- [70] Mr
Brady’s explanation for the receipt of the marketing letter from
Naturalwear by Ms Derrick (in the name of Amanda Birch)
was that the Cancer
Society had sent a warranty card in Amanda Birch’s name to
“entrap” Naturalwear because
the Cancer Society harboured
suspicions about Naturalwear and Ms Harrison.
- [71] There
was no evidence that such a warranty card was sent, but there was unchallenged
evidence that it did not. Ms Chesterman said
that she did not authorise the
sending of the warranty card in the name of Amanda Birch to Medivex and that no
one would have sent
it without a direction from her to do so. Further, had the
Cancer Society harboured suspicions about Naturalwear or Ms Harrison at
that
point, the Cancer Society would not have included information about
Naturalwear’s services (as one of four alternative
suppliers) in its
mailout on 23 September 2016 in which it advised its clients that it was exiting
its retail business. We also note
Mr Brady’s initial acceptance in his
letter of 13 April 2017 to Mr Kyne that a few of the names must have come from
the Cancer
Society database somehow.
- [72] For
these reasons, we are unpersuaded that a false warranty card was sent. Instead,
we find that the source information for the marketing
letter sent in the name of
Amanda Birch to Ms Derrick’s address was from the Cancer Society
database.
- [73] Mr
Brady accepted that Ms Horrell’s warranty card had her address spelt
correctly. His explanation for the misspelling in Naturalwear’s
marketing
letter was that there had been a transcription error and that it was simply a
coincidence that her address in Naturalwear’s
marketing letter replicated
the address errors in the Cancer Society database.
- [74] We
accept that transcription errors occurred when the Cancer Society compiled its
database. We also accept as possible that coincidental
errors could have been
made by Naturalwear, as Mr Brady invited us to. However, we must decide this
case based not on what might
have occurred but on the evidence before the
Tribunal, and whether that evidence satisfies us on the civil (balance of
probabilities)
standard that Ms Horrell’s health information came from the
Cancer Society database.
- [75] Part
of that evidence demonstrates that the address information for the marketing
letter sent to Ms Derrick in the name of Amanda
Birch came from the Cancer
Society database. We also consider that the name error in G J’s case,
where her first names were
repeated instead of her first name being followed by
her family name, is an unusual error to have been made coincidentally (as Mr
Brady accepted) especially when made by two separate organisations from
different source data, being the warranty card in the case
of Naturalwear, and
the index card system in the case of the Cancer Society. While we accept as
theoretically possible that there
was a warranty card in the name of GH GH,
there is no evidence to support that contention. We also note that the
Naturalwear invoice
dated 10 February 2017, which was provided by Mr Brady as
evidence of G J being a Naturalwear customer, was correctly addressed to
G J,
not GH GH. Given that the Amanda Birch information can only have come from the
Cancer Society database, we find that it is more
likely than not that G
J’s details were also sourced from that database.
- [76] It
is against that background that we need to consider the source of Ms
Horrell’s health information.
- [77] The
flyer addressed to Ms Horrell contained the same errors as in the Cancer Society
database. In contrast, her warranty card contained
the correct spelling of her
address. Given that Ms J’s and Ms Birch’s (Derrick’s) address
information was sourced
from the Cancer Society database, we find it more likely that this too was the
source of Ms Horrell’s address.
- [78] In
reaching this conclusion we expressly make no finding that the whole of the
Cancer Society database was taken, either in hard copy
or electronic form. There
was no evidence before the Tribunal that would support such a determination. Ms
Chesterman acknowledged
that the investigation she initiated did not indicate
the database had been downloaded and we accept Mr Brady’s submission
there
was no evidence that Naturalwear sent out more than 120 promotional letters to
former Cancer Society customers.
- [79] We
also stop short of finding who was responsible for collecting Ms Horrell’s
health information from the Cancer Society database
and stop short of finding
that Mr Brady was aware that information from that database had been used by
Naturalwear for marketing.
- [80] We
turn now to consider whether there has been a breach of the HIPC collection
rules.
WAS THERE A BREACH OF THE COLLECTION RULES?
The collection rules
- [81] Rules
1 to 4 of the HIPC govern the collection of health information by health
agencies:
[81.1] Rule 1 deals with the purpose for which information is
collected;
[81.2] Rule 2 deals with the source of any health information collected
and also requires an agency to collect health information from the
individual
concerned unless one or more of the stated exceptions apply;
[81.3] Rule 3 deals with transparency of the collection of health
information; and
[81.4] Rule 4 deals the manner of collection of health information.
- [82] In
broad terms, these rules, which also reflect Information Privacy Principles
(IPPs) 1 to 4, give effect to the Collection Limitation
Principle in the OECD
Guidelines on the Protection of Privacy and Transborder Flows of Personal Data
(the OECD Guidelines),6 which reads:
Collection Limitation Principle
- There
should be limits to the collection of personal data and such data should be
obtained by lawful and fair means and, where appropriate,
with the knowledge or
consent of the data subject.
- [83] As
the Tribunal has noted in other cases, given that the purpose of the Privacy Act
as set out in the long title to the Act is to
promote and protect individual
privacy in general accordance with the OECD Guidelines, exceptions to the
Collection Limitation Principle
are to be as few as
possible.7
6 The OECD Guidelines were adopted by OECD member countries in
September 1980. See, for example, Stephen Penk and Rosemary Tobin (eds)
Privacy Law in New Zealand (2nd ed, Thomson Reuters, Wellington, 2016) at
[3.2].
7 See, for example, Holmes v Housing New Zealand Corporation
[2014] NZHRRT 54 at [74].
- [84] The
term “collect” is defined in the Privacy Act, s 2, to
exclude “unsolicited information”
but is not limited in any
other way. Applying the OECD Guidelines, the Tribunal has
concluded that “collect” must be given a broad and purposive meaning
of “gathering together, the
seeking of or the acquisition of personal
information”.8 In contrast,
“unsolicited” is to be given a narrow definition and will be limited
to information which comes into the
possession of an agency in circumstances
where it has taken no active steps to acquire or record that
information.9
- [85] While
we have found that the information used by Naturalwear for marketing to Ms
Horrell came from the Cancer Society database, Mr
Brady acknowledged that
Medivex had also shared Ms Horrell’s warranty card with Naturalwear.
Therefore, two potential breaches
of the HIPC collection rules arise.
- [86] In
relation to the former, Mr Brady accepted that were the Tribunal to find that
the source of Ms Horrell’s health information
was the Cancer Society
database, the rules would have been breached. In relation to the latter, Mr
Brady accepted that if sharing
of health information was not permitted between
Medivex and Naturalwear, Naturalwear had collected that information contrary to
the
rules.
- [87] We
deal with the second issue, the sharing of information by related companies,
first. Further, in fairness to Mr Brady as a lay litigant,
we then also consider
whether there has been a breach of the HIPC collection rules, rather than rely
on his concession which came
only during the late stages of the
hearing.
Sharing information by related companies
- [88] Mr
Brady accepted that Medivex and Naturalwear were separate agencies but suggested
that as “related” companies, as that
term is understood under the
Companies Act 1993 (the Companies Act), Naturalwear and Medivex are entitled to
share information
including, in the particular circumstances of this case,
warranty card information.
- [89] A
related company is defined in s 2(3) of Companies Act as follows:
In this Act, a company is related to another company if—
(a) the other company is its holding company or subsidiary; or
(b) more than half of the issued shares of the company, other than shares that
carry no right to participate beyond a specified
amount in a distribution
of either profits or capital, are held by the other company and companies
related to that other company
(whether directly or indirectly, but other than in
a fiduciary capacity); or
(c) more than half of the issued shares, other than shares that carry no right
to participate beyond a specified amount in a distribution
of either profits or
capital, of each of them are held by members of the other (whether directly or
indirectly, but other than in
a fiduciary capacity); or
(d) the businesses of the companies have been so carried on that the separate
business of each company, or a substantial part of
it, is not readily
identifiable; or
(e) there is another company to which both companies are
related;— and related company has a corresponding
meaning.
8 Armfield v Naughton [2014] NZHRRT 48 at [44].
9 Armfield, above n 8,
at [44].
- [90] There
was sufficient evidence before us to conclude that Medivex and Naturalwear were
related companies.
- [91] Companies
Office records reveal that Naturalwear and Medivex have shareholding in common.
Mr Brady was the sole director of both companies,
Naturalwear and Medivex shared
premises, and although Naturalwear and Medivex had separate customer databases
they shared a computer
system. Further, staff from both Medivex and Naturalwear
compiled the database that Naturalwear used for its direct marketing to
Cancer
Society clients. The evidence also included correspondence before the Tribunal
between the Cancer Society and Mr Brady which
was sent to and from Medivex, not
Naturalwear, even though it was about Naturalwear’s actions. Mr Brady also
responded to Ms
Horrell’s complaint about Naturalwear from a Medivex email
address.
- [92] None
of that evidence, however, displaces the fact that even related companies are
separate agencies and Mr Brady did not seek to
argue otherwise.
- [93] Agency
is defined in s 2(1)(a) of the Privacy Act as:
[A]ny person or body of persons, whether corporate or unincorporate, and
whether in the public sector or the private sector; and,
for the avoidance of
doubt, includes a department.
- [94] This
means that if this were a case involving IPPs rather than HIPC rules,
Naturalwear would need to bring itself within one of the
exceptions set out in
IPP 1 to 4 to avoid a breach of those collection principles.
- [95] It
is not different under the HIPC. The definition of health agency in cl 4(2) does
not include related companies within the definition
of a health agency and, as
in the case of the Privacy Act, there is no reason to read in such an expanded
definition. This is particularly
so given the confidential and sensitive nature
of health information.
Was there a breach of Rule 1?
- [96] Rule
1 of the HIPC states:
Rule 1
Purpose of Collection of Health Information
Health information must not be collected by any health agency unless:
(a) the information is collected for a lawful purpose connected with a function
or activity of the health agency; and
(b) the collection of the information is necessary for that purpose.
- [97] Marketing
is a lawful purpose connected with a function of a health agency such as
Naturalwear which is engaged in retailing breast
protheses and provides an
associated fitting service. The question is whether it is necessary for it to
collect information from
former clients of the Cancer Society for this purpose.
“Necessary” in this context is to be understood as “needed
or
required in the circumstances, rather than being merely desirable or
expedient”.10
10 See Tan v New Zealand Police [2016] NZHRRT 32 at
[77].
- [98] Ms
Horrell accepted that marketing was a lawful purpose but argued that advertising
the services of Naturalwear could have occurred
in other ways such as through
newspaper advertisements, meaning it was not necessary to collect her
information at all.
- [99] Mr
Brady, on the other hand, defined the purpose more narrowly as direct marketing
to a particular person, meaning that it would always
be necessary to collect
their health information first in order to undertake such marketing.
- [100] In
our view, the purpose cannot be defined so narrowly that the issue of necessity
effectively results in only one answer. This would
be inconsistent with the
purpose of the Privacy Act as set out in the long title which is to promote and
protect individual privacy
in accordance with the OECD Guidelines which
emphasise the importance of consent by the individual concerned to the
collection of
their data. To suggest that consent could be sidestepped for
commercial convenience is not consistent with the OECD Guidelines, and
therefore
inconsistent with the principles underpinning the Privacy Act itself. It would
undoubtedly be expedient for Naturalwear
to be able to collect information from
the Cancer Society database or from Medivex but that is not the meaning to be
given to “necessary”
in r 1 of the HIPC.
- [101] We
agree with Ms Horrell that it was not necessary for Naturalwear to collect from
either the Cancer Society or from Medivex to market
its services to prospective
customers. We find that r 1 was breached.
Was there a breach of rule 2?
- [102] Rule
2 of the HIPC states:
Rule 2
Source of Health Information
(1) Where a health agency collects health information, the health agency must
collect the information directly from the individual
concerned.
(2) It is not necessary for a health agency to comply with subrule (1) if the
agency believes on reasonable grounds:
(a) that the individual concerned authorises collection of the information from
someone else having been made aware of the matters
set out in subrule 3(1);
(b) that the individual is unable to give his or her authority and the health
agency having made the individual’s representative
aware of the matters
set out in subrule 3(1) collects the information from the representative or the
representative authorises collection
from someone else;
(c) that compliance would:
(i) prejudice the interests of the individual concerned;
(ii) prejudice the purposes of collection; or
(iii) prejudice the safety of any individual;
(d) that compliance is not reasonably practicable in the circumstances of the
particular case;
(e) that the collection is for the purpose of assembling a family or genetic
history of an individual and is collected directly from
that individual;
(f) that the information is publicly available information;
(g) that the information:
(i) will not be used in a form in which the individual concerned is
identified;
(ii) will be used for statistical purposes and will not be published in a form
that could reasonably be expected to identify the
individual concerned; or
(iii) will be used for research purposes (for which approval by an ethics
committee, if required, has been given) and will not be
published in a form that
could reasonably be expected to identify the individual concerned;
(h) that non-compliance is necessary:
(i) to avoid prejudice to the maintenance of the law by any public sector
agency, including the prevention, detection, investigation,
prosecution, and
punishment of offences;
(ii) for the protection of the public revenue; or
(iii) for the conduct of proceedings before any court or tribunal (being
proceedings that have been commenced or are reasonably in
contemplation); or
(i) that the collection is in accordance with an authority granted under section
54 of the Act.
- [103] Ms
Horrell said that whether Naturalwear took the information from the database or
from warranty cards, it was not collected from
her and should have
been.
- [104] Initially
Mr Brady argued that Naturalwear had reasonable grounds for believing that
compliance was not reasonably practicable in
the circumstances, thus falling
within the exception set out in r 2(2)(d). He submitted it was not possible for
Naturalwear to collect
the information from the individuals themselves until
they found out from Medivex who those individuals were. Again, there is a
circularity
of approach, and it cannot be the case that the rule could be
circumvented in that way. Mr Brady also accepted in response to questions
from
the Tribunal that his position was inconsistent with the principles that
underpinned the Privacy Act.
- [105] In
any event, this argument only applies to the situation where information came
from warranty cards. We have found that Ms Horrell’s
health information
came from the Cancer Society database. Mr Brady concedes that if the Tribunal
finds information has been collected
from the Cancer Society database, Ms
Horrell’s health information had been collected inconsistently with the
HIPC.
- [106] We
find that the collection of information from the Cancer Society database and the
sharing of warranty cards have both breached r
2 of the HIPC.
Was there a breach of rule 3?
- [107] As
noted earlier, r 3 of the HIPC is designed to ensure the transparency of the
collection of health information. Rule 3
states:
Rule 3
Collection of Health Information from Individual
(1) Where a health agency collects health information directly from the
individual concerned, or from the individual’s representative,
the health
agency must take such steps as are, in the circumstances, reasonable to ensure
that the individual concerned (and the
representative if collection is from the
representative) is aware of:
(a) the fact that the information is being collected;
(b) the purpose for which the information is being collected;
(c) the intended recipients of the information;
(d) the name and address of:
(i) the health agency that is collecting the information; and
(ii) the agency that will hold the information;
(e) whether or not the supply of the information is voluntary or mandatory and
if mandatory the particular law under which it is
required;
(f) the consequences (if any) for that individual if all or any part of the
requested information is not provided; and
(g) the rights of access to, and correction of, health information provided by
rules 6 and 7.
(2) The steps referred to in subrule (1) must be taken before the information
is collected or, if that is not practicable, as soon
as practicable after it is
collected.
- [108] In
our view, r 3 is not engaged as it is predicated on information being collected
directly from the individual concerned, which was
not the case here.
Was there a breach of rule 4?
- [109] Rule
4 of the HIPC governs the manner of collection. It provides
that:
Rule 4
Manner of Collection of Health Information
Health information must not be collected by a health agency:
(a) by unlawful means; or
(b) by means that, in the circumstances of the case:
(i) are unfair; or
(ii) intrude to an unreasonable extent upon the personal affairs of the
individual concerned.
- [110] Knowledge
and consent are important considerations in determining whether health
information has been collected by unfair means. In
this case, Ms Horrell neither
knew her health information was being collected by Naturalwear nor did she
consent to it. Ultimately,
however, what amounts to collection by unfair means
is context dependent.11
- [111] One
of the issues in Harder v Proceedings Commissioner,12 was
whether the taping of a phone conversation between a lawyer and the other party
in a civil proceeding was unfair. The Complaints
Review Tribunal (CRT) held that
it was, basing this conclusion on the perceived power imbalance between a lay
litigant and a lawyer.
The High Court upheld the CRT’s finding of
unfairness on the basis that taping the conversation represented a breach of
professional
standards. However, the Court of Appeal disagreed that taping the
conversation meant the personal information was collected unfairly.
It
considered that it must have been anticipated that a record of the conversation
would be made and that a recording provided the
most accurate record of it. In
reaching this decision it found that the primary purpose of the prohibition
against unfair collection
was to prevent people being induced into supplying
personal information they would not otherwise have supplied, which it said did
not arise on the facts of that case.13
- [112] While
that may suggest that IPP 4 (or as in this case the HIPC, r 4) only applies
where someone is induced to supply personal information
by means which are
unfair, we do not read that decision to limit the application of IPP 4 to those
circumstances. As the Tribunal
noted in Lehmann v Canwest Radioworks
Ltd,14 Harder was concerned with harm to the person who
supplied the information, not harm caused to the person who was the subject of
the information.
We agree with the Tribunal in Lehmann that the Court of
Appeal
11 Harder v Proceedings Commissioner [2000] NZCA 129; [2000] 3 NZLR 80 (CA)
at [32] and [34].
12 Harder, above n 11.
13 At [31]–[33].
14 Lehmann v Canwest Radioworks Ltd [2006] NZHRRT 35 at
[73].
did not intend to exclude from consideration any harm suffered by the subject of
the information.
- [113] Medivex
permitted the collection of health information by Naturalwear because of the
closeness of the association between the two
companies. The decision to disclose
and collect respectively was made by Mr Brady in his capacity as the director of
both companies.
Mr Brady acknowledged that other retailers would not have been
provided with the same information that Naturalwear was permitted
to collect
from Medivex. Because of the closely held nature of the two companies the
decision to collect the information was in effect
a secret one, and in this
sense the collection was surreptitious. The fact that Ms Horrell was not induced
to provide the information
does not detract from our view that it was
nevertheless collected by unfair means. The fact that the information collected
was highly
sensitive health information which was used for commercial gain also
supports the finding that r 4 of the HIPC has been breached.
- [114] Similarly,
we also find that the means by which Ms Horrell’s health information was
collected from the Cancer Society database
was unfair and in breach of r 4.
While we have stopped short of finding how and by whom the information was
taken, it was highly
sensitive information that was clearly collected
clandestinely without the knowledge of the Cancer Society from which it was
uplifted.
- [115] Having
found this breach of r 4, it is unnecessary to deal with Ms Horrell’s
argument that it was collected unlawfully.
Breach of r 10 accepted by Naturalwear
- [116] Naturalwear
accepted right from the outset that it had breached r 10 of the HIPC. That rule
prohibits health information collected
for one purpose being used for any other
purpose unless the agency believes on reasonable grounds that one of the
exceptions set
out in r 10 applies.
Rule 10
Limits on Use of Health Information
(1) A health agency that holds health information obtained in connection with
one purpose must not use the information for any other
purpose unless the health
agency believes on reasonable grounds:
(a) that the use of the information for that other purpose is authorised by:
(i) the individual concerned; or
(ii) the individual’s representative where the individual is unable to
give his or her authority under this rule;
(b) that the purpose for which the information is used is directly related to
the purpose in connection with which the information
was obtained;
(c) that the source of the information is a publicly available publication [and
that, in the circumstances of the case, it would
not be unfair or unreasonable
to use the information];
(d) that the use of the information for that other purpose is necessary to
prevent or lessen a serious [...] threat to:
(i) public health or public safety; or
(ii) the life or health of the individual concerned or another individual;
(e) that the information:
(i) is used in a form in which the individual concerned is not identified;
(ii) is used for statistical purposes and will not be published in a form that
could reasonably be expected to identify the individual
concerned; or
(iii) is used for research purposes (for which approval by an ethics committee,
if required, has been given) and will not be published
in a form that could
reasonably be expected to identify the individual concerned;
(f) that non-compliance is necessary:
(i) to avoid prejudice to the maintenance of the law by any public sector
agency, including the prevention, detection, investigation,
prosecution, and
punishment of offences; or
(ii) for the conduct of proceedings before any court or tribunal (being
proceedings that have been commenced or are reasonably in
contemplation);
(g) that the use of the information is in accordance with an authority granted
under section 54 of the Act.
- [117] It
does not matter for the purposes of the r 10 breach whether the information came
from warranty cards or the Cancer Society database.
Mr Brady did not suggest any
of the exceptions set out in r 10 applied in either case. We agree that on any
view of the facts there
has also been a breach of this rule.
HAS THERE BEEN AN INTERFERENCE WITH MS HORRELL’S
PRIVACY?
- [118] As
noted earlier in this decision, the Tribunal only has jurisdiction to grant a
remedy if Ms Horrell is also able to establish that
these breaches of the HIPC
have interfered with her privacy.
- [119] What
amounts to an interference with privacy is set out in s 66(1) of the Privacy
Act.
66 Interference with privacy
(1) For the purposes of this Part, an action is an interference with the
privacy of an individual if, and only if,—
(a) in relation to that individual,—
(i) the action breaches an information privacy principle; or
(ii) the action breaches a code of practice issued under section
63 (which relates to public registers); or
(iia) the action breaches an information privacy principle or a code of
practice as modified by an Order in Council made under section
96J; or
(iib) the provisions of an information sharing agreement approved by an
Order in Council made under section
96J have not been complied with; or
(iii) the provisions of Part
10 (which relates to information matching) have not been complied with;
and
(b) in the opinion of the Commissioner or, as the case may be, the Tribunal, the
action—
(i) has caused, or may cause, loss, detriment, damage, or injury to that
individual; or
(ii) has adversely affected, or may adversely affect, the rights, benefits,
privileges, obligations, or interests of that individual;
or
(iii) has resulted in, or may result in, significant humiliation, significant
loss of dignity, or significant injury to the feelings
of that individual.
- [120] This
section requires Ms Horrell first to establish that there has been a breach of
HIPC rules by Naturalwear, thus meeting the requirement
of s 66(1)(a). We have
found she has done so. She must then also establish that one or more of the
thresholds set out in s 66(1)(b)
has been met, and that the breach of the HIPC
rules was a material factor in the harm she suffered.
- [121] In
this case, the focus is on s 66(1)(b)(iii), being whether the breach of the HIPC
rules has resulted in significant humiliation,
significant loss of dignity or
significant injury to feelings.
- [122] What
is encompassed within the concept of injury to feelings was described by the
Tribunal in Director of Proceedings v O’Neill,15 in the
following terms:
[29] The feelings of human beings are not intangible things. They are real
and felt, but often not identified until the person stands
back and looks
inwards. ... However a feeling can be described, it is clear that some feelings
such as fear, grief, sense of loss,
anxiety, anger, despair, alarm and so on can
be categorised as injured feelings. They are feelings of a negative kind arising
out
of some outward event. To that extent they are injured feelings.
- [123] The
requisite causal link between the breach of the IPPs and the harm caused by it
was discussed in Taylor v Orcon Ltd:16
[61] ... [A] plaintiff claiming an interference with privacy must show the
defendant’s act or omission was a contributing cause
in the sense that it
constituted a material cause. The concept of materiality denotes that the act or
omission must have had (or
may have) a real influence on the occurrence (or
possible occurrence) of the particular form of harm. The act or omission must
make
(or may make) more than a de minimis or trivial contribution to the
occurrence (or possible occurrence) of the loss. It is not necessary
for the
cause to be the sole cause, main cause, direct cause, indirect cause or
“but for” cause. No form of words will
ultimately provide an
automatic answer to what is essentially a broad judgment.
- [124] That
approach applies equally to the HIPC rules.
- [125] In
her evidence, Ms Horrell spoke of how she felt following her receipt of
Naturalwear’s flyer. She said she found it incomprehensible
that a company
that imports artificial breasts for women who have had mastectomies would hunt
down their information to send them
advertising and would wake in the night
thinking about it. Ms Horrell said it caused her to relive some of the trauma
from the early
period following her cancer diagnosis where she thought she was
going to die and had a recurring nightmare about people demanding
that she show
her prosthesis which is then handed around a group of people for
examination.
- [126] Ms
Horrell also gave evidence more generally about her views about receiving direct
marketing in her mailbox. She said that she has
an “Addressed Mail
Only” sign on her letterbox and a sticker on her front door turning away
all salespeople and door-to-door
representatives, including those promoting
religion, charity, and politics. Ms Horrell said she had very clear boundaries
about who
she is and how she lives her life and that part of the principles by
which she lives is to strongly object to being pursued by marketers
of any
kind.
- [127] Ms
Horrell further referred to the impact of her interactions with Naturalwear
following receipt of its direct marketing. She said
she felt she was given the
“run around” by Naturalwear staff when she asked them how they got
her name and address. She
also
15 Director of Proceedings v O’Neill [2001] NZAR 59
(HC).
16 Taylor v Orcon Ltd [2015] NZHRRT 15, (2015) 10 HRNZ 458
at [61].
felt that she was fed a mix of lies and red herrings which made her angry and
upset and that she was treated with hostility by Naturalwear
staff.
- [128] Ms
Horrell was also critical of the fact that Naturalwear had not deleted her
details from its records in 2017 after concerns were
raised by the Cancer
Society, which led to her receiving a second pamphlet in 2018. She said that she
is meticulous with the safe
keeping of her records and that it was devastating
to discover her private health information had fallen into the wrong hands. She
said that Naturalwear should have acknowledged what it had done without excuse
at the outset and left her to get on with her life.
Had it done so, she said
that she would have withdrawn her complaint. Instead, she said she has
experienced ongoing humiliation and
trauma.
- [129] Ms
Horrell’s evidence of the impact on her can perhaps be summed up in the
following passage from her evidence:
Not only was Naturalwear uninvited, unwelcome and intruding into my life, it
went on to minimise the breach of my privacy. The receipt
of inappropriate
advertising was traumatic but the realisation that the company had collected my
breast cancer information without
my knowledge or consent was devastating. When
Naturalwear staff responded to my queries with inappropriate statements and
conflicting
explanations, I felt it was shutting down my questions.
Conclusion on interference with privacy
- [130] Ms
Horrell has satisfied the Tribunal that she suffered significant injury to her
feelings through the collection of her highly personal
health information and
its use by Naturalwear to market its products and services to her. We also
accept Ms Horrell’s evidence
of her interactions with Naturalwear staff
following her receipt of the marketing flyer and are also satisfied that this
added to
her distress.
REMEDIES
- [131] Having
found an interference with privacy, we now consider the question of remedies.
The remedies that may be granted are those set
out in the s 85 of the Privacy
Act:
85 Powers of Human Rights Review Tribunal
(1) If, in any proceedings under section
82 or section
83, the Tribunal is satisfied on the balance of probabilities that any
action of the defendant is an interference with the privacy of
an individual, it
may grant 1 or more of the following remedies:
(a) a declaration that the action of the defendant is an interference with the
privacy of an individual:
(b) an order restraining the defendant from continuing or repeating the
interference, or from engaging in, or causing or permitting
others to engage in,
conduct of the same kind as that constituting the interference, or conduct of
any similar kind specified in
the order:
(c) damages in accordance with section
88:
(d) an order that the defendant perform any acts specified in the order with a
view to remedying the interference, or redressing
any loss or damage suffered by
the aggrieved individual as a result of the interference, or both:
(e) such other relief as the Tribunal thinks fit.
(2) In any proceedings under section
82 or section
83, the Tribunal may award such costs against the defendant as the Tribunal
thinks fit, whether or not the Tribunal makes any other order,
or may award
costs against the plaintiff, or may decline to award costs against either
party.
(3) Where the Director of Human Rights Proceedings is the plaintiff, any
costs awarded against him or her shall be paid by the Privacy
Commissioner, and
the Privacy Commissioner shall not be entitled to be indemnified by the
aggrieved individual (if any).
(4) It shall not be a defence to proceedings under section
82 or section
83 that the interference was unintentional or without negligence on the part
of the defendant, but the Tribunal shall take the conduct
of the defendant into
account in deciding what, if any, remedy to grant.
- [132] Section
88(1) provides for three specific types of damages:
88 Damages
(1) In any proceedings under section
82 or section
83, the Tribunal may award damages against the defendant for an interference
with the privacy of an individual in respect of any 1 or
more of the
following:
(a) pecuniary loss suffered as a result of, and expenses reasonably incurred by
the aggrieved individual for the purpose of, the
transaction or activity out of
which the interference arose:
(b) loss of any benefit, whether or not of a monetary kind, which the aggrieved
individual might reasonably have been expected to
obtain but for the
interference:
(c) humiliation, loss of dignity, and injury to the feelings of the aggrieved
individual.
- [133] In
deciding what (if any) remedy to grant, the Tribunal is required under s 85(4)
to consider the conduct of Naturalwear.
Remedies sought
- [134] Ms
Horrell originally sought $10,000 in damages but she later increased this
to
$20,000. She did so in response to the way in which she perceived Naturalwear
conducted the litigation which she said wore her down
and increased her levels
of stress. Ms Horrell described the additional $10,000 as punitive damages for
providing a copy of her warranty
card which Naturalwear had previously claimed
to have destroyed and for restructuring the business so that Naturalwear became
the
trading name of a different company which she said was to escape the
jurisdiction of the Tribunal. She also said the additional sum
better reflected
the amount of time she had spent on the case as well as the cost of materials
such as toner for printing documents.
Ms Horrell asked that the punitive damages
be paid to the Cancer Society in recognition of the trauma and distress caused
to its
clients and staff.
- [135] In
addition to the claimed damages against Naturalwear, Ms Horrell claimed $1,500
for a new prosthesis and bras to support the prosthesis.
She also wanted Ms
Harrison to be fined $100, with the fine to be paid to her former employer, the
Cancer Society.
- [136] In
its statement of reply Naturalwear said that it had acknowledged its mistake in
using health information for direct marketing and
that it had taken steps to
ensure it would not happen again. This included privacy training for its staff
and implementing the other
recommendations made by the Ministry of Health and
the Privacy Commissioner. It also rejected the accusation that its response was
insincere and that it had failed to take its privacy obligations seriously. It
said it had already responded to her initial requests
to apologise and to remove
all her details from its records. In relation to the claimed damages, the
payment for $1,500 for a new
prosthesis and bras was labelled as opportunistic
by Naturalwear as no claim had been made previously that the fitting or product
had been substandard.
- [137] Naturalwear’s
initial position was that no sum for humiliation and distress should be paid
given that Naturalwear carried out
all of Ms Horrell’s requests made at
the time. However, it adopted a revised position at the conclusion of the
hearing. In
his closing submissions Mr Brady acknowledged that sending the
letter offering Naturalwear’s service to Ms Horrell was utterly
wrong. He
accepted it was a breach of her privacy and unreservedly apologised to her for
the obvious stress caused by it. Mr Brady
also said that he admired and
respected Ms Horrell’s courage in continuing with the claim and for the
strength she had shown
in pursuing it.
- [138] Mr
Brady believed that damages of $2,500 for emotional harm fairly recognised the
emotional hurt and pain caused to Ms Horrell by
sending her the marketing
letter, and that a further sum of $500 was justified to meet her actual costs in
preparing the bundle of
documents and other similar costs. He also confirmed
that Naturalwear would not seek costs against Ms Horrell even if the judgment
went in its favour. Mr Brady rejected the notion that punitive damages were
warranted, as he did not consider Naturalwear’s
conduct was outrageous in
any way, repeating his earlier denial of any wrongdoing in relation to the
Cancer Society database.
Damages
- [139] The
general principles relating to the assessment of damages for humiliation, loss
of dignity and injury to feelings under the Privacy
Act, s 88(1)(c), were set
out in Hammond v Credit Union Baywide.17
Of particular relevance to the current assessment are the following
principles:
[139.1] The award of damages is to compensate the plaintiff rather than
to punish the defendant, although the conduct of the defendant may
be a relevant
factor in the assessment of the quantum of damages awarded.
[139.2] Where it is found for the purposes of s 66(1)(b)(iii) that there
has been an interference with privacy it follows that the threshold
for awarding
compensatory damages has been met. This is because that subsection (set out
above at [119]) requires the plaintiff to
establish significant humiliation, significant loss of dignity or significant
injury to feelings.
[139.3] The nature of the assessment required by s 88(1)(c) means there
is a subjective element to any assessment to which the personality
of the
aggrieved person is relevant.
[139.4] The award of damages must adequately compensate the aggrieved
individual for the harm suffered.
- [140] Having
found an interference with privacy on the basis that Ms Horrell experienced
significant humiliation, distress and injury to
feelings, it follows that the
threshold for an award of damages under s 88(1)(c) has been met. However, as
will be seen from the
principles identified in Hammond and from s 88 more
broadly, we do not have the jurisdiction to fine Ms Harrison even if we were to
find that she had improperly taken
information from the Cancer Society database,
which we have stopped short of doing. We further agree with Mr Brady that there
was
no basis to award damages to cover the cost of a 3D-printed breast
prosthesis and bras. Nor does the Tribunal have the jurisdiction
to award
punitive damages. Nevertheless, as we have discussed, the Tribunal is
required
17 Hammond v Credit Union Baywide [2015] NZHRRT 6 at
[170].
under s 85(4) of the Privacy Act to take the conduct of Naturalwear into account
when deciding what, if any, remedy to grant.
- [141] In
relation to Naturalwear’s conduct, Ms Horrell argued that had Naturalwear
deleted all her information from its records after
the Cancer Society raised its
concerns with it, she would not have received the subsequent marketing. For its
part, Naturalwear argued
that it responded in good faith to Ms Horrell’s
privacy complaint by apologising and by destroying her warranty card and
removing
her details from its records.
- [142] Mr
Brady also pointed to the privacy training undertaken by Naturalwear’s
staff. While we accept that Naturalwear’s staff
did receive privacy
training, Mr Brady remained unaware that sharing personal information between
Naturalwear and Medivex would breach
the Privacy Act, indicating that a better
understanding of the operation of the privacy principles within the organisation
is still
required.
- [143] We
can understand that Ms Horrell may have felt that the apology provided at the
time of her complaint to the Office of the Privacy
Commissioner was not wholly
genuine. That said, in our view Mr Brady’s apology to Ms Horrell at the
hearing was without reservation
and demonstrated an understanding of the impact
on her perhaps not earlier appreciated. However, it came very late in the piece.
We also accept that from the outset Naturalwear acknowledged the breach of r 10,
although it consistently argued right up until the
final afternoon of the
hearing that no damages should follow.
- [144] For
these reasons we do not consider that the actions of Naturalwear warrant a
reduction in the quantum of damages that would otherwise
be awarded.
- [145] On
the other hand, we do not consider that damages should be increased because of
the way that Naturalwear conducted itself during
the course of the proceedings.
Naturalwear is entitled to pursue its defence which, while ultimately
unsuccessful, did not unnecessarily
lengthen the proceeding.
- [146] As
to the level of damages appropriate in this case, three bands have been
identified by the Tribunal as a rough guide to the level
of damages that may be
awarded for the kind of emotional harm encompassed by s 88(1)(c). In Hammond
awards of up to
$10,000 were identified as appropriate for harm at the less serious end, with
awards in the middle band ranging from $10,000 to $50,000,
and awards of over
that amount for the most serious cases.18
- [147] While
we acknowledge Ms Horrell’s vulnerability as a cancer survivor and accept
that there could well have been distress caused
to her by having to relive some
of her earlier experiences, we had no independent evidence before us of this
kind of harm or the
degree of its impact. Based on the evidence we had, it is
our view that the principal emotional harm experienced by Ms Horrell was
one of
outrage and anger. Put simply, Ms Horrell was incensed that Naturalwear would
try to make money out of her misfortune, that
it held her warranty card when it
was not entitled to have it, and that it used information from an organisation
such as the Cancer
Society for commercial gain.
- [148] In
our view, the circumstances justify an award of damages of $10,000, which is at
the junction between bands one and two.
- [149] The
damages are awarded jointly and severally against the defendants. How the
defendants meet that award is a matter for them.
Declaration
- [150] Ms
Horrell did not seek a declaration that there has been an interference with her
privacy. Nevertheless, where there has been an
interference with privacy a
declaration of interference with privacy will ordinarily
follow.19
- [151] We
see no reason in this case not to make such an order.
COSTS
- [152] Because
Ms Horrell represented herself, the only costs she is entitled to recover are
the disbursements she incurred in bringing her
case.20
- [153] Ms
Horrell bore the costs of preparing the common bundle but did not quantify the
costs involved other than to mention using two toner
cartridges.
- [154] Mr
Brady submitted that costs of $500 would be appropriate were she to succeed in
her claim.
- [155] We
award that amount.
NON-PUBLICATION ORDERS
- [156] Interim
non-publication orders were made to protect from publication the names and any
other identifying details of Cancer Society
clients (other than Ms Horrell) and
their family members who were referred to in the evidence filed in the
proceeding. The same order
was made in relation to customers of
Naturalwear.
- [157] The
interim orders also prevented a search of the Tribunal’s file without the
prior permission of the Chairperson or a Deputy
Chairperson.
- [158] The
question now is whether the interim orders should be made permanent.
Criteria and approach to non-publication orders
- [159] The
Tribunal’s jurisdiction to make a final non-publication order is governed
by s 107 of the Human Rights Act 1993.
- [160] Section
107(1) provides every hearing of the Tribunal must be held in public, although
the Tribunal may make non-publication orders
under s 107(3) if “satisfied
that it is desirable to do so”.
- [161] The
Tribunal’s approach to non-publication orders and the
“desirable” threshold is set out in Waxman v Pal (Application for
Non-Publication Orders)21 and Director of Proceedings v Brooks
(Application for Final Non-Publication Orders).22 The Tribunal
summarised its approach to s 107 in Waxman as follows:
[66] In summary (and at the risk of some repetition) the following
principle points (they are not intended to be exhaustive)
should be kept in
mind when interpreting and applying s 107(1) and (3) of the Human Rights Act. It
is these points which will assist
the determination whether the Tribunal is
satisfied that it is “desirable” to make a suppression order:
19 See Geary v New Zealand Psychologists Board [2012] NZHC
384, [2012] 2 NZLR 414 at [107]- [108].
20 See Scarborough v Kelly Services (NZ) Ltd (Costs) [2016]
NZHRRT 3 at [8.1].
21 Waxman v Pal (Application for Non-Publication Orders)
[2017] NZHRRT 4.
[66.1] The stipulation in s 107(1) that every hearing of the Tribunal be
held in public is an express acknowledgement of the principle
of open justice, a
principle fundamental to the common law system of civil and criminal justice.
The principle means not only that
judicial proceedings should be held in open
court, accessible to the public, but also media representatives should be free
to provide
fair and accurate reports of what occurs in court.
[66.2] There are circumstances in which the interests of justice require that
the general rule of open justice be departed from, but
only to the extent
necessary to serve the ends of justice. This is recognised by s 107(1), (2) and
(3) of the Act.
[66.3] The party seeking the order must show specific adverse consequences
that are sufficient to justify an exception to the fundamental
rule. The
standard is a high one.
[66.4] In deciding whether it is satisfied that it is desirable to make a
suppression order the Tribunal must consider:
[66.4.1] Whether there is some material before the Tribunal to show specific
adverse consequences that are sufficient to justify an
exception to the
fundamental rule.
[66.4.2] Whether the order is reasonably necessary to secure the proper
administration of justice in proceedings before it. The phrase
“the proper
administration of justice” must be construed broadly, so that it is
capable of accommodating the varied circumstances
of individual cases as well as
considerations going to the broader public interest.
[66.4.3] Whether the suppression order sought is clear in its terms and does
no more than is necessary to achieve the due administration
of justice.
- [162] As
any non-publication order made by the Tribunal is a limit on the right to
freedom of expression guaranteed by s 14 of the New Zealand
Bill of Rights Act
1990 it must be a reasonable limit under s 5 of that Act. Whether or not a
non-publication order is a reasonable
limit on freedom of expression will depend
on the circumstances of the particular case.23
- [163] As
endorsed by the High Court in JM v Human Rights Review Tribunal
(JM),24 a two-step approach is required. The first step is
the evaluative exercise by the Tribunal so that it can be satisfied that a
non-publication
order is desirable. If that threshold is satisfied, it then
needs to consider whether it should exercise its discretion to make a
non-
publication order.
- [164] Both
parties supported the interim orders in this case being made final.
Should final orders be made?
- [165] The
evidence led by Ms Horrell referred to clients of the Cancer Society who were
not parties to this proceeding and in some instances
to family members of those
clients. The evidence identifies these clients as having had breast cancer and
in some instances the clients
have died. Mr Brady also led evidence that
identified clients of Naturalwear.
- [166] Other
than Ms Horrell, none of the people referred to in this evidence are parties to
the proceeding and it is likely that most, if
not all, were unaware of the
proceeding and that some of their health information and other personal details
formed part of the evidence
in this case. It is unnecessary for this information
to be made public to understand the Tribunal’s decision as it can be
provided
in an anonymised form. Further, there is no public interest in doing
so.
23 See Marshall v IDEA Services Ltd (Application for Interim
Non-Publication Orders) [2019] NZHRRT 52 at [16.2].
24 JM v Human Rights Review Tribunal. [2023]
NZHC 228 at [84]–[85].
- [167] In
these circumstances, and given the highly sensitive nature of the information,
we are satisfied it is desirable that the intended
effect of the interim orders
in relation to the non-publication of identifying details of Cancer Society and
Naturalwear clients
and family members be made final. For the same reasons, we
exercise our discretion to make final orders in this case.
- [168] The
non-publication orders do not extend to Ms Horrell other than in relation to her
address. At the hearing, it was discussed whether
some of her health
information, other than her status as a cancer survivor and former customer of
the Cancer Society, should be the
subject of a non-publication order. However,
applying the two-step test articulated in JM, we are not satisfied it
would be desirable to do so. The extent of that further information is limited,
and it provides context
for why Ms Horrell did not complain initially when
direct marketing first took place and for the award of damages we have
made.
Search of the Tribunal file
- [169] There
is no specific statutory rule allowing access to Tribunal documents. The
Tribunal does, however, draw on High Court practice
and specifically the Senior
Courts (Access to Court Documents) Rules 2017.25
- [170] In
recognition of the principle of open justice and the freedom to seek
information, r 11 provides that any person may ask to access
any document. Rule
11 also requires that when an application is made the request must be given to
the parties or their lawyers (unless
impractical to do so).
- [171] As
discussed, there is no public interest in sensitive health information about
clients of Naturalwear and the Cancer Society becoming
public. Further because
an order requiring leave to search the Tribunal’s file provides a
procedural restriction only, there
is a limited impact only on principles of
open justice. Accordingly, the Tribunal is satisfied that it is desirable to
issue an order
preventing the search of the Tribunal file without leave of the
Chairperson or the Tribunal.
- [172] We
therefore make a permanent order restricting access to the Tribunal’s file
without leave.
DECISION OF THE TRIBUNAL AND FORMAL ORDERS
- [173] In
conclusion, the Tribunal is satisfied on the balance of probabilities that the
actions of Naturalwear interfered with the privacy
of Ms Horrell and makes the
following orders:
[173.1] A declaration under s 85(1)(a) of the Privacy Act 1993 that
Naturalwear interfered with Ms Horrell’s privacy in the way it collected
her health information and then used that information to market its services to
her.
[173.2] The defendants, jointly and severally, are to pay Ms Horrell the
sum of
$10,000 for injury to feelings under s 85(1)(c) of the Privacy Act 1993.
[173.3] The defendants, jointly and severally, are to pay Ms Horrell the
sum of
$500 in costs under s 85(2) of the Privacy Act 1993.
25 See A v Van Wijk (Access to File) [2019] NZHRRT 12 at
[11].
[173.4] Pursuant to s 107(3)(b) of the Human Rights Act 1993 the Tribunal
makes final orders that:
[173.4.1] There is to be no publication of the names, addresses, or
other details which might lead to the identification of Cancer Society
clients
or their family members referred to in this decision or in any of the evidence
before the Tribunal, other than the plaintiff
whose address only is not to be
published.
[173.4.2] There is to be no publication of the names, addresses, or
other details which might lead to the identification of Naturalwear
clients
referred to in this decision or in any of the evidence before the Tribunal.
[173.4.3] There is to be no search of the Tribunal file without leave
of the Chairperson or the Tribunal after first allowing the parties the
opportunity to be heard on any such request.
|
............................................
Ms MG Coleman Deputy Chairperson
|
............................................
Ms WV Gilchrist Member
|
...........................................
Ms ST Scott QSM Member
|
NZLII:
Copyright Policy
|
Disclaimers
|
Privacy Policy
|
Feedback
URL: http://www.nzlii.org/nz/cases/NZHRRT/2023/35.html