News

Director Brigitte Morten on RNZ's Nine to Noon.

The Court of Appeal upheld a High Court decision to decline a property developer’s application for summary judgment that it was the “Controlling Member” of a residents’ society, formed for the purpose of a development. The Court upheld a summary judgment that the “Controlling Member” position had been disestablished when developer had sold all its land in the development.

A local authority was liable to a landowner for taking enforcement action against them under the Resource Management Act 1991 without checking their records as to whether the use of the land was consented.

The Court of Appeal upheld the High Court’s declaration that a non-statutory process that allowed pokie machine operators to relocate was unlawful under the Gambling Act 2003.

The Restructuring Insolvency and Turnaround Association of New Zealand (“RITANZ”) declined Mr Kamal’s application for membership on character grounds. The High Court dismissed his application to quash that decision, but issued a declaratory judgement in his favour. The Court of Appeal upheld RITANZ’s decision to decline his membership application and allowed a cross-appeal by RITANZ against the declaratory judgement, which relaxed the procedural standards the High Court set for RITANZ when determining applications.

The Supreme Court overturned the Minister for Oceans and Fisheries’ decision on Total Allowable Catch (“TAC”) for the East Coast tarakihi fishery (“East Coast Fishery”), despite Seafood New Zealand succeeding on one ground of appeal. The key issues were whether the Minister’s decision could consider social, cultural, and economic factors (“SCE factors”), and what probability of rebuild success the Minister could choose.

The Court of Appeal overturned an injunction, allowing a bank to close a client's account due to human rights abuse concerns, ruling there was no arguable case that the account closure breached the client’s rights.

A climate change advocacy group was unsuccessful in judicial review proceedings challenging the grant of two petroleum exploration permits.

The High Court granted interim orders preventing the Attorney-General from appointing a Judicial Conduct Panel to investigate allegations of judicial misconduct by a District Court Judge.