As a result, John sued Andrew for damages for this assault.

As section 5 of the Accident Compensation Act [1972] prohibits suing for damages for physical injury, John sued for exemplary damages for the hammer attack.

However the court rules that it was the conduct of the defendant was the deciding factor on whether special punishment of exemplary damages should be awarded, and not the nature of the plaintiff's injury.

Which was unfortunate for the plaintiff here, as the court referred to him here as the "principal irritant", as amongst other things, he was trespassing at the time of the assault, and as a result, the court declined to make an award for exemplary damages to the plaintiff.

This article relating to case law in New Zealand is a stub.