New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments

Topic

Causation of impecuniosity

Legal area

Court

7 Jun 2017

TRIASTRA LIMITED v THE PROPRIETORS OF TAHAROA "C" BLOCK [2017] NZHC 1229

Citation

[2017] NZHC 1229
Court

High Court

Threshold established that there was reason to believe the plaintiff would be unable to meet an adverse costs order given its lack of realisable assets and single‑client history; balancing discretion, plaintiff's success fee claim and implied‑term case were weak enough that security for costs should be ordered but structured incrementally so as not to halt proceedings: total security fixed at NZD 32,500 with NZD 15,000 payable by 30 June 2017 and the remainder on the setting down date; costs of the application to follow the event on a 2B basis in favour of the defendant.
28 Mar 2012

DJ CRAIKE AND JA CRAIKE V R TILSLEY HC AK CIV-2010-404-2846

Citation

openlaw-ddc122af_04bf_4608_99bf_8a88d249008e.pdf
Court

High Court

Balancing the parties' interests, the court concluded it was just to order modest security only in respect of the first defendant (R Tilsley) because (i) plaintiffs are impecunious and security would likely impede prosecution, (ii) plaintiffs have arguable claims against the Watson defendants so security against them would be unjust, and (iii) the claim against Tilsley had weaker prospects on certain aspects (access road) though questions remain about the warm-up area; accordingly the court ordered $20,000 security for Tilsley and declined security for the other defendants.
23 Dec 2010

PETERSON V LUCAS MILLS PTY LIMITED AND ORS HC AK CIV-2009-404-007762

Citation

openlaw-d921be18_c3c1_4a96_b69c_2bf1f530d6de.pdf
Court

High Court

Review allowed and Associate Judge's refusal of security set aside because relevant material and distinctions between different mills and proceedings were not sufficiently considered; evidence did not establish that plaintiff could not meet staged security and the causal link between prior patent litigation and plaintiff's impecuniosity was misapprehended; balancing merits and costs the Court ordered staged security of NZD 10,000 to close of pleadings and stayed the proceeding until provided.
30 Jul 2008

SAFER CORPORATION LTD V THE NZ AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION INC HC AK CIV 2007-404-003217

Citation

openlaw-625f4c27_e78a_4a34_b622_b1ca2f9425dc.pdf
Court

High Court

Security for costs ordered because the plaintiff is unable to pay costs, the causal link between the defendant's alleged wrongdoing and the plaintiff's impecuniosity is tenuous, and the plaintiff's substantive claims do not appear strong enough at this stage to preclude an order for security; reduced estimate of costs by 33% produced security of $30,000 with stay of proceedings if not paid.
22 Nov 2007

KIWI INTERNATIONAL SOLUTIONS LTD V BAGGENSTOS HC TAU CIV 2007-470-171

Citation

openlaw-092fc343_e5c7_437c_aa8e_526566c001cc.pdf
Court

High Court

Security for costs of NZD 30,000 ordered because the plaintiff was found impecunious, failed to prove that its impecuniosity was caused by the defendant, its claim was of limited prospects on provisional assessment and shareholders gave no evidence of means; balance of justice favoured protecting defendant from unrecoverable costs.

New Zealand Case Law

TRIASTRA LIMITED v THE PROPRIETORS OF TAHAROA "C" BLOCK [2017] NZHC 1229

DJ CRAIKE AND JA CRAIKE V R TILSLEY HC AK CIV-2010-404-2846

PETERSON V LUCAS MILLS PTY LIMITED AND ORS HC AK CIV-2009-404-007762

SAFER CORPORATION LTD V THE NZ AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION INC HC AK CIV 2007-404-003217

KIWI INTERNATIONAL SOLUTIONS LTD V BAGGENSTOS HC TAU CIV 2007-470-171