22 Jun 2021
The pleaded fiduciary duty did not arise independently of the defendant's employment as CFO; the claim's essence was employment-related and therefore the first cause of action, which depended entirely on the employment relationship, was struck out as properly within the jurisdiction of the employment institutions.
19 Jul 2019
The defendant's pleaded affirmative defences of truth and honest opinion are deficient because they fail to identify which statutory limb is relied on, fail to link pleaded facts to the defamatory meanings advanced by the plaintiff, and contain improper particulars; accordingly those defences cannot succeed and will be struck out unless properly repleaded in compliance with the Defamation Act and High Court Rules by a specified date, with costs reserved.
26 May 2017
The Court applied a prima facie test and found that clause 25.7 constituted an arbitration agreement that remained prima facie operative because the procedural cancellation route in clause 25 was not followed; accordingly the Court stayed the fourth and fifth causes of action and referred those disputes to arbitration, ordered the plaintiffs to provide security for costs of NZD 12,800 as a first tranche within 10 working days, stayed the proceeding pending provision of that security, and dismissed the defendants' strike out application.
9 Dec 2015
The Court held that many of the challenged paragraphs in the second defendant's statement of defence were irrelevant to the narrow jurisdictional issue before the judicial review and constituted an improper attempt to litigate investigatory process and other matters; those paragraphs (specified in the judgment) were struck out, but other paragraphs addressing delay, lapse of time and the preserved paragraph 56.3 and the affirmative discretion defence were allowed to remain because they potentially bear on the Court's exercise of discretion to grant or refuse relief.
3 Feb 2006
Counsel's submissions before the Assistant Commissioner do not constitute representations by the plaintiff capable of founding estoppel by representation; the Gillette plea as pleaded is not a standalone defence to infringement and must be struck out in favour of revocation remedies; pleading 'common general knowledge' as a separate ground of lack of novelty is impermissible under s41(1)(e) and r725ZI and must be struck out; words asserting 'the common general knowledge in the art in New Zealand' are beyond s41(1)(f) and must be removed; paragraph 19.4(c) may stand only if particulars of docu…