New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments

Topic

Beddoe order

Legal area

Court

12 Dec 2022

NIVEN v ERON HOLDINGS LTD [2022] NZHC 3344

Citation

[2022] NZHC 3344
Court

High Court

The court held the first two questions (beneficiary status of Ruth due to 2019 documents and the entitlement to the joint and Ron's separate loans) raise issues of trust administration falling into the Buckton category warranting a PCO; accordingly Jocelyn and Lynette were granted a PCO in respect of those two questions to lie in court until 10 February 2023 allowing the trustees to bring the application themselves, after which the PCO will take effect if trustees do not. The application for a PCO in respect of the third question (whether Lynette owes AUD 310,000) was dismissed as a self-inte…
19 May 2022

OFFICER v CM LAW TRUSTEES (2010) LTD [2022] NZHC 1098

Citation

[2022] NZHC 1098
Court

High Court

The Court concluded the intended proceedings are being brought in the best interests of the trust and estate and granted a Beddoe order approving the applicant to commence the removal proceedings and to be indemnified: the Estate will reimburse costs of the Beddoe application and will indemnify the applicant for reasonable costs to remove the co‑executor, and the Trust will indemnify the applicant for reasonable costs to remove trustees and to appoint Public Trust as sole trustee.
16 Dec 2021

BOOT v STEPHENS [2021] NZHC 3487

Citation

[2021] NZHC 3487
Court

High Court

The Court refused to direct the trustee under s66 Trustee Act 1956 to make an s339 Property Law Act 2007 application because such an application was unavoidable and a s66 direction would be an improper use, but it granted a Beddoe order confirming the trustee's entitlement to indemnity for costs from the estate/trust funds and directed the trustee to commence the s339 proceeding without delay.
15 Oct 2020

MCCALLUM v MCCALLUM & ORS [2020] NZCA 497

Citation

[2020] NZCA 497
Court

Court of Appeal

The Court granted joinder because Fiona's legal interests were aligned with the appellant, she had been served and appeared, and it was appropriate she be heard on the appeal; the Court admitted the amended statements of claim as further evidence because the current state of the underlying proceedings is relevant to the appeal and there was no opposition; consequential evidential implications (eg new pleas of unconscionable dealing) are matters for the panel hearing the appeal.
5 Aug 2020

RE ESTATE OF R M BLACKWELL EX PARTE BARTLETT [2020] NZHC 1951

Citation

[2020] NZHC 1951
Court

High Court

Despite only two close-in-time personal attendance attempts, the court granted substituted service under r 6.8 because the estate was modest and the proposed combination of posting to the beneficiary's PO Box and last known address plus a text message was likely to bring the documents to his attention while avoiding further diminution of the estate.
5 Jun 2020

Re Estate R M BLACKWELL [2020] NZHC 1238

Citation

[2020] NZHC 1238
Court

High Court

Grant leave to use the originating application procedure because the filed material sufficiently informs the issues and interlocutory procedures are unlikely; direct that the beneficiaries (Stewart Reece and Jocelyn Reece, Donald Murdoch, Make A Wish Foundation of New Zealand Trust) and Mark Young be served; and order that the legal opinion attached as Exhibit E to the affidavit of Megan Lisa Bartlett sworn 20 May 2020 be withheld from service on Mark Young because it is protected by litigation privilege under s 56 Evidence Act 2006.
30 Jul 2019

MCCALLUM v MCCALLUM [2019] NZHC 1925

Citation

(2019) 5 NZTR¶29
Court

High Court

The Court treated the principal litigation as hostile (Buckton category 3) and applied a conservative, proportionality-focused discovery approach: trustees must disclose gross amounts of legal fees and specific legal advice relevant to resettlement and decisions to fund beneficiaries' litigation (notably the November 2017 opinion with redaction except for the resettlement analysis, and legal advice on funding decisions), but detailed invoices and trustees' internal deliberations/reasons need not be disclosed absent an arguable case of bad faith; litigation privilege did not protect advice obt…
6 Dec 2018

MCLAUGHLIN v MCLAUGHLIN, [2018] NZHC 3198

Citation

[2018] NZHC 3198
Court

High Court

The Court granted a partial Beddoe order: trustees are authorised to use Ashley Trust funds to meet reasonable and proportionate legal and associated costs to defend only the second cause of action (the application for directions regarding the Homestead Block and future administration) because defending that cause is in the best interests of the Trust; the Court refused to approve trust-funded defence of the hostile breach-of-trust claims (first, third, fourth and fifth causes) and declined retrospective full indemnity for those matters; further expenditure is limited and must be approved by…
22 Nov 2017

SCHISCHKA v MCINTOSH [2017] NZHC 2875

Citation

[2017] NZHC 2875
Court

High Court

Indemnity or increased costs are not warranted because the applicant made an honest error and did not act unreasonably or in bad faith and the substantive issues remain undecided; however the applicant improperly commenced proceedings by originating application without leave and represented that leave had been granted, so standard 2B costs of $8,920 are awarded against the applicant.
19 Jun 2015

FUNDACIÓN PIMJO AC v AGUILAR & AGUILAR LIMITED [2015] NZHC 1402

Citation

[2015] NZHC 1402
Court

High Court

The Court granted Fundación a prospective costs order for NZD 102,000 to be paid by the second defendant trustee from the trust funds to enable neutral representation, with caps on hourly rates and directions for filing in New York, and refused Carisma's applications for retrospective indemnity and Beddoe relief because the litigation between defendants is hostile, Carisma's conduct is challenged as breach of trust and Carisma failed to seek proper Beddoe directions with full disclosure and cannot use interlocutory process to determine New York proceedings costs.