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A minute's silence has been held at the Auckland District Court to mark a year since the death of South Auckland woman Folole Muliaga.
A prayer was said and a minute's silence observed prior to the closing submissions getting underway at the inquest into Muliaga's death.
The 45-year-old, who was using an oxygen machine, died after a Mercury Energy contractor disconnected the power to her home because of an overdue power bill.
During the inquest the court heard from a DHB nurse who said Folole Muliaga was aware she had life threatening health problems. Records from the hospital show her weight varied from 134 to 212 kilos between 2002 and May last year.
Mr Muliaga's lawyer, Olinda Woodroffe has given her closing address. She says that while it is acknowledged that Folole Muliaga would have died of morbid obesity one of the reasons she died was that her power was cut off and for the three hours before she died was unable to use her oxygen machine.
Woodroffe made recommendations to the court that Mercury Energy be regulated and that all contractors be given written guidelines for switching off people's power.
The electricity contractor who turned the power off at the Muliaga house gave evidence at the inquest last week.
He told the court he had spoken to Folole Muliaga after he disconnected her power but neither she nor her son told him she had a medical problem.
In her closing address the lawyer for the Muliaga children Moira McNab said Mercury Eneregy did not comply with guidelines for State-Owned Enterprises regarding how it treated vulnerable customers.
She says Folole Muliaga had health needs greater than the average customer and power should never have been cut to her oxygen machine.
McNab says before Folole Muliaga's death Mercury had about 87 customers on its medical dependency register. She says they now have 3,000.
