Judgment sets new benchmark for officer liability in large New Zealand companies
New Zealand's High Court upheld a large company CEO's health and safety conviction on 31 March 2026, in what counsel described as a first.
In Gibson v Maritime New Zealand [2026] NZHC 813, Justice Gault dismissed both the conviction and sentence appeals of Anthony Michael Gibson, the former chief executive officer of Ports of Auckland Limited (POAL). The decision examined the due diligence obligations of officers of large, complex organisations under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA).
In the early hours of 30 August 2020, lasher Pala'amo Kalati died when a shipping container fell on him aboard the MV Constantinos P at the Port of Auckland. He was 31 years old. Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) charged Gibson under ss 44 and 48 of HSWA, and in the alternative s 49, for failing to exercise due diligence as an officer of POAL.
POAL itself pleaded guilty to two separate charges: an operational failure on 30 August 2020, accepting liability for its ship leading hand who directed Kalati and a fellow lasher to work in the bay adjacent to where the crane was operating; and systemic failures between 31 May 2019 and 31 August 2020, including failing to provide and maintain a safe system of work by developing and clearly documenting adequate and effective exclusion zones around operating cranes, provide effective training and instruction to workers on working safely around operating cranes, carry out effective supervision, monitoring and audits to ensure that workers were complying with established safe systems of work and not developing unsafe work cultures, conduct an appropriate risk assessment relating to the removal of the Lash Leading Hand role in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and provide effective training, instruction, and supervision to ship leading hands and crane operators when requiring them to assume the responsibilities of lash leading hands.
Following a seven-week judge-alone trial, the Auckland District Court convicted Gibson on 26 November 2024, while acquitting him of a separate particularised failure relating to an operational change made during COVID-19 in response to pandemic conditions and social distancing requirements. The court sentenced him to a fine of $130,000 and ordered him to pay costs of $60,000 on 21 February 2025.
Gibson's counsel argued the trial judge set the standard too high and conflated POAL's duties with Gibson's personal obligations. Justice Gault rejected this. Under s 44(2) of HSWA, an officer of a PCBU must exercise the care, diligence, and skill that a reasonable officer would exercise in the same circumstances, taking into account (without limitation) the nature of the business or undertaking and the position of the officer and the nature of the responsibilities undertaken by the officer.
The court found Gibson failed to take reasonable steps to ensure POAL maintained a clearly documented, effectively implemented, and appropriate exclusion zone around operating cranes and failed to verify that those processes were working. The judgment confirmed this assessment involved an evaluative, fact-specific inquiry focused on what further reasonable steps a reasonable officer would have taken.
The court drew a careful distinction between the Board's ultimate governance oversight and Gibson's executive responsibility. While the Board held ultimate oversight of health and safety, that did not remove Gibson's obligation at the executive level. His responsibility extended to taking reasonable steps to implement and monitor POAL's health and safety processes. The court confirmed that an officer cannot simply rely on subordinates without proper enquiry, but may reasonably rely on others where that reliance is appropriate.
On the sentence appeal, Justice Gault found the trial judge correctly applied the Stumpmaster culpability bands with appropriate modification to reflect the distinct duty of an officer rather than a PCBU.
The court placed Gibson's offending near the bottom of the high culpability band ($120,000 to $200,000) and found the $140,000 starting point, though stern, fell within the appropriate range.
The court also upheld the $60,000 costs award under section 152 of HSWA. MNZ's total legal costs were approximately $440,000 (excluding disbursements), with expert witness costs of approximately $255,000. The court found the award just and reasonable given the scale and nature of the proceedings.
