New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments | LexChat

New Zealand Case Law

Perfectly good common law defendant
  • 15 Mar 2012

    CHOW V THOMSON HC AK CIV 2009-404-4765

    Citation
    openlaw-ae9fa0aa_4cdc_43c4_9152_6c9f78d1ac2f.pdf
    Court
    High Court

    The Court must be satisfied of three matters before granting leave under s 9(4): prima facie claim against insured, prima facie policy response, and that the insured is not a perfectly good common law defendant. Applying that test, the judge found on the material before the Court and given the imminence of trial that there was sufficient doubt about Good Bros' status as a perfectly good common law defendant (insufficiently active prosecution/defence, sparse evidence, failure to pursue discovery) to grant leave to proceed against IAG as insurer of Good Bros; similarly, by a narrow margin leave…