New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments

Topic

Statements of wishes

Legal area

Court

24 May 2022

KAIN v PUBLIC TRUST [2022] NZSC 65

Citation

[2022] NZSC 65
Court

Supreme Court

Leave to appeal was refused because the proposed grounds raise fact-specific issues and lack sufficient prospects of success on questions of general or commercial importance; the Court of Appeal correctly addressed the High Court directions, confirmed trustees must exercise independent assessment regarding settlor statements of wishes and related-trust considerations, and this case is an inappropriate vehicle for resolving the broader legal questions raised
16 Dec 2021

KAIN v PUBLIC TRUST [2021] NZCA 685

Citation

[2021] NZCA 685
Court

Court of Appeal

The Court held (1) the High Court directions regarding recognition of the equality principle and limitations about taking into account prior distributions ([108](b),(c) and [109](d)) and the direction on subsequent wishes ([134](b)) were correct and are upheld; (2) the High Court's [134](a) wording was ambiguous and is replaced: Public Trust is entitled to take into account the settlor's wishes and must read and understand them, but may only take them into account to the extent they are not inconsistent with the trust's terms and purposes; trustees retain independent judgment.
31 Oct 2019

PUBLIC TRUST v KAIN AND OTHERS [2019] NZHC 2789 .

Citation

[2019] NZHC 2789
Court

High Court

The discovery application was dismissed because the directions as framed raised threshold legal questions that did not require the broad factual discovery sought; the court concluded the trustees asked whether particular matters could be taken into account (a legal question) and that ordering the wide discovery sought would be working backwards from perceived utility rather than from the terms of the directions; limited agreed discovery of any statements of wishes other than those recently circulated was ordered.

New Zealand Case Law

KAIN v PUBLIC TRUST [2022] NZSC 65

KAIN v PUBLIC TRUST [2021] NZCA 685

PUBLIC TRUST v KAIN AND OTHERS [2019] NZHC 2789 .