New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments

Topic

Recusal and apparent bias

Legal area

Court

9 Nov 2022

Moana’s Mother v Smith & Chief Executive of Oranga Tamariki Ministry for Children & Taipa [2022] NZHC 2934

Citation

[2022] NZHC 2934
Court

High Court

The appeal is dismissed. The High Court upheld the Family Court's holistic application of the Oranga Tamariki Act principles: no single principle (including cultural preference) automatically trumps the child's paramount interest in safety, stability and attachment; given the timing of the original placements, the child's established stable attachments with the Smiths, and the demonstrable failure by OT to make early adequate kin inquiries, the Family Court acted within its discretionary judgment in retaining the child's placement with the Smiths while ordering a guardianship/access/support f…
15 Jul 2020

GUO v CULPAN [2020] NZCA 293

Citation

[2020] NZCA 293
Court

Court of Appeal

Special leave to appeal was declined because the matters raised were predominantly factual and did not disclose questions of law of general or public importance that ought to be submitted to this Court; however an extension of time to appeal the High Court's judicial review decision was granted because the delay was explicable, not oppressive to the respondent, the appeal was not hopeless and the interests of justice required granting an extension until 12 August 2020.
24 Apr 2017

LOWE v AUCKLAND FAMILY COURT [2017] NZHC 758

Citation

[2017] NZHC 758
Court

High Court

The Court held the Family Court judge breached natural justice by dismissing the first two DVA protection applications without giving the applicant an opportunity to be heard because the dismissal affected the applicant's right of access to the court; however, because the substantive issues could still be heard (a fresh without‑notice application was before the Family Court, strike‑out proceedings were pending, and compliant affidavits had since been filed) the High Court declined to order rehearing or other relief. The Court upheld the judge's exercise of r170 authority to remove affidavits…
30 Sept 2016

Morris v Accident Compensation Corporation

Citation

[2016] NZACC 277
Court

District Court

The reviewer's dismissal of the 19 February 2015 and 1 April 2015 applications was correct because the communications did not identify any ACC decision capable of review; statutory duties to acknowledge and allocate reviewers (ss136-137) did not render the dismissal invalid where allocation occurred and timing was not determinative; and the reviewer was not precluded from determining the review because his prior involvement related to a different claim and ss138-139 require disclosure/avoidance only for previous involvement 'in the claim', so no reasonable apprehension of bias arose under Sax…
23 Jul 2014

MATHIESEN v HODGES [2014] NZHC 1722

Citation

[2014] NZHC 1722
Court

High Court

The Court held that recusal was not required to make interlocutory procedural orders despite the Judge's historical partnership with the creditor's solicitor; the Judge made procedural directions, left substantive questions (including any annulment or contempt determinations) to another Judge, and reserved costs.
22 Feb 2011

KOIA v THE WAITANGI TRIBUNAL HC WN CIV-2010-485-1519

Citation

openlaw-207ad720_4f29_4b8b_afa2_7ed03d508fe1.pdf
Court

High Court

The Court held that the Tribunal's recommendations in WAI 2190 directed at the Ngāti Porou settlement (paras 65–66 of the Report) were ultra vires because they were made without any finding that the claims were well-founded under s6(3) of the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975; all other challenges to the WAI 2190 report and the procedural decisions in WAI 2268 (delegation, management of reply, refusal to appoint assisting counsel, and application of recusal test) failed and were lawful; remedy limited to a declaratory judgment that the specified recommendations were without jurisdiction and no furt…

New Zealand Case Law

Moana’s Mother v Smith & Chief Executive of Oranga Tamariki Ministry for Children & Taipa [2022] NZHC 2934

GUO v CULPAN [2020] NZCA 293

LOWE v AUCKLAND FAMILY COURT [2017] NZHC 758

Morris v Accident Compensation Corporation

MATHIESEN v HODGES [2014] NZHC 1722

KOIA v THE WAITANGI TRIBUNAL HC WN CIV-2010-485-1519