New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments | LexChat

New Zealand Case Law

Interpretation of standard form sale agreement
  • 20 Mar 2019

    MCARTHUR & ORS v GUERIN & ANOR [2019] NZHC 500

    Citation
    [2019] NZHC 500
    Court
    High Court

    Clause 4.2(2) of the standard REINZ/ADLS sale agreement is compensatory and permits deduction for betterment where a purchaser elects reinstatement that produces an improvement over the pre-damage condition; the District Court's allowance for betterment was within its evaluative judgment and not displaced on appeal; the purchasers remained obliged to settle unless they validly elected cancellation by the contractual settlement date, so penalty interest was payable from that date; leave was granted for the late cross-appeal but the proposed post-judgment EQC evidence was irrelevant to contract…

    • Diminution in value
    • Betterment
    • Penalty interest for late settlement
    • Admission of fresh evidence on appeal
    • Interpretation of standard form sale agreement
    • Estoppel by representation