Woman dies........is it murder?

Question

A Meridean Energy (NZ) contractor cut off the power to the home of a woman on a life saving machine, and she died. Should both contractor and Meridean be charged with murder?

I want to apologise to Meridean Energy for falsely labeling them with this crime.
I should have said Mercury Energy.

Answer 1

That will be for the authorities to decide, but in my opinion I think a full investigation is warranted. Perhaps manslaughter instead of murder for both.

Answer 2

I believe the fault lies with the contractor. Did Mercury have any knowledge that the power was disconnected? Usually your given a chance to sort it out before its cut. However it is at the contactors discretion as to whether or not to call the energy company.
In this case the company should've been called due to the fact that the lady was on a machine and the contractor was taken in the house and shown the machine. Common sense prevails you know.
Secondly as soon as the power was switched off why didn't the family ring the hospital for an ambulance if their mother was in such danger. If that was my mum I'd be ringing for an ambulance knowing that she will die without power in the machine not playing one last tune......I'm not trying to blame the family tryin' to make sense of it all, and that's just the way I would react to a situation if I was not being listened to by the contractor I'd be finding a way to get mum to a hospital or doc asap even with the contractor standing there.

Answer 3

No, and it's time that people woke up to the fact that this country has far too many ignorant deadbeats in it. A NZ $100 power bill went unpaid for so long that the power was cut off for non payment, and that usually means that the family had not contacted the company to make arrangements for payment either. If the power was so damned important to keep this woman alive then why didn't she or any of her family ensure that the bill was paid?
WINZ would have helped out for instance, they could have contacted the local medical centre or hospital when they realised that the power was off, or called an ambulance, but no, they do none of these things because they're ignorant deadbeats.
They didn't even ask a neighbour if they could plug the machine in elsewhere.
Nor should any power company be required to continue a service that is not being paid for. Otherwise anyone who has a home life support machine that requires power can simply refuse to pay their power bill and nothing can be done about it.
This family is a bunch of retards, they're up there with that stupid british couple that left their little kids alone in a hotel room and one goes missing. Personal responsibility folks is what it's all about.

Answer 4

Although I am American, both of our countries come from the English common law tradition.

I would say "NO" to murder. Under the common law, there has to be an INTENT, an ACT and a CONFLUENCE of the intent and the action. That does not seem to be the case here. The contractor simply intended to cut-off the power, it did not intend to kill someone.

Negligent homicide may be an option. If I were defending the contractor, I would argue that it is the normal course of performance for a business to cut-off power to households that do not pay. I would point-out that it had been done thousands of times over the past however many years without lethal results. Furthermore, I would argue that deficiency notices had been sent to the home without any response from the residents. Perhaps the contractor would have been willing to continue supplying the home with electricity had they been notified of the condition of the resident.

In short, I would say that the circumstances were tragic; however, my client is not responsible. The contractor acted in the commonly accepted manner of contractors. The contractor gave notice to the resident and was never notified of the condition of the resident.

Answer 5

Both of them should be legally liable for the actions, but in the judicial system there are always holes and exceptions including a lighter conviction of manslaughter. If the woman's power was cut off with the full understanding that she was dependant on the machine then i think that the company should have found alternatives to help someone just because it's the right thing to do and it is pretty malicious just to execute someone to save a penny.

Answer 6

No. Ive been poor, Ive been without money, I have NEVER been close to having my power cut EVER, in the past, I just rang, explained my situation and they let me pay them off in chunks. If I could possibly die if my power was cut, I would make damn sure my power account was in credit.
Obviously this family had presumed their power wouldnt be cut off. There are thousands of other people in the same situation and they make sure they pay their accounts.
I think this is a good example of a bad accident. Neither the contractor or the power company should be to blame.
They had plenty of time between not paying thier account and the acutal time of cut off to sort this out.
Also, power was cut during the day... why on earth did she go to sleep without power if her life depending on the machine having it?
I smell something fishy... I dont think we the public know the full story here.

now if they accidentally had a power cut, that would be a different story and still no ones fault.

Answer 7

No, she had the machine for less than three weeks and it wasn't required 24/7. She died 3 hrs after the power was switched off and there were two other people in the house....how about a bit of personal responsibility here?....call an ambulance, pay the power bill, go somwhere that has paid for there power and plug in... dont call it murder, call it a case of poor judgement.

Answer 8

Did he know that the woman was on a life saving machine? Is it in the companies policies and procedures to get that information before turning off the power? I don't think you could definitely say murder without more information.

Answer 9

Mercury Energy DID NOT KNOW that a life was dependant on their power supply at this particular house. When they talked to the now deceased lady, she briefly discussed the option of a payment plan, but still did not tell them she needed their power in order to stay alive.

The power company was doing their job. A customer hadnt paid for the power (and it takes quite a while of not paying for them to cut off their power) so they got cut off.

Imagine you go out and your house gets burgled. You come home and discover it and ring your insurance company. They tell you that you are not covered as you have not been paying your bill. Whos fault is it???

As a side note; the family who could not afford to pay the power bill, has somehow managed to pay for a lawyer.....

Answer 10

How can it be murder when woman stayed in her home for 2 hours after the electricity was disconnected. As much as i feel for the family, they did have the time to leave the house or get an ambulance. Its a very said situation.