New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments | LexChat

Topic

Dishonesty exclusion

Legal area

Court

16 Dec 2016

ZURICH AUSTRALIAN INSURANCE LIMITED V MARK DONALD WITHERS [2016] NZCA 618

Citation

[2016] NZCA 618
Court

Court of Appeal

The Court held that (1) damages under s 43 FTA are restorative and the Swindles' compensable loss was reduced to $2,311,394 after crediting interest received, and after contributory negligence (attributed from their agent) a 50% apportionment produced an amended judgment of $1,155,697 against Withers; and (2) on the indemnity issue Withers' repeated false undertakings and sustained reckless disregard of his professional obligations amounted to dishonesty under the objective/subjective test, so the policy's Fair Trading Act indemnity proviso and the dishonesty exclusion applied and Zurich was…
25 Feb 2014

JOHN FRANCIS JACKSON v IAG NEW ZEALAND LIMITED [2014] NZSC 12

Citation

[2014] NZSC 12
Court

Supreme Court

The Court upheld the Court of Appeal's application of the mixed objective-subjective test: the applicant's admitted contemporaneous knowledge rendered his conduct objectively dishonest by normally accepted standards, and there was a sufficient nexus between that dishonesty and the liability, so the dishonesty exclusion applied; the applicant's infirmities did not negate the objective element.