Photo: GNS
A high court appeal of the criminal conviction against the owners of Whakaari White Island, for safety failings through their company, has been adjourned.
The appeal was due to begin at the High Court in Auckland on Monday.
Whakaari Management managed access to the volcano when it erupted in 2019, killing 22 people.
Lawyer James Cairney filed for an adjournment yesterday, on behalf of the Buttle family.
They were appealing the conviction, which found their company Whakaari Management had a safety duty to tourists visiting the island, as landowners.
Five companies, including that of the volcano's owners, have been fined and ordered to pay millions of dollars in compensation for safety failings leading up to the deadly eruption in 2019.
In March, Justice Peter Andrew said the questions for an appeal included whether the company overseeing the volcanic island was managing a workplace and therefore had a health and safety duty.
At the time Cairney said they were appealing the conviction, which found their company Whakaari Management had a safety duty to tourists visiting the island, as landowners.
"The reality is for the people involved with the company, the finding that there was this duty was inconsistent with what they thought," Cairney said.
"The fact that there was a duty hangs heavy on the family behind Whakaari Management. It hangs heavy because of the significant implications that there are from imposing a duty on a person essentially akin to a landowner granting rights of access to another person to conduct activities on their land."
The parties felt they were "wrongly charged" and had a right to test that, he said.