New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments

Topic

Trust indemnity

Legal area

Court

7 May 2021

JOHNSTON v BROWN [2021] NZHC 1018

Citation

[2021] NZHC 1018
Court

High Court

Ms Brown was the successful party on the stay and ancillary applications; the majority of Mr Johnston's applications were without merit or had no prospect of success (and some could not be ordered because the court was functus officio); Mr Johnston unreasonably failed to engage on a suitable interim retention figure for sale proceeds; accordingly costs follow the event, a 25% uplift on 2B costs is warranted, and costs are fixed at $7,020.62 with disbursements $110 to be paid from funds otherwise payable to Mr Johnston's new trust.
26 Mar 2021

HAMILTON v KIRWAN [2021] NZHC 634

Citation

[2021] NZHC 634
Court

High Court

The plaintiff may recover disbursements for legal advice obtained while self-represented but the claimed amount must be reduced to what is reasonable and proportionate compared with likely scale costs; trustees remain personally liable for costs absent a proper and authorized indemnity from trust funds and there is no basis to order indemnity out of the residuary of the deceased's estate; quantified awards and offsets were determined accordingly.
13 Jun 2019

JONES v ANGELA O’KEEFFE [2019] NZCA 222

Citation

(2019) 24 PRNZ 529
Court

Court of Appeal

The Court set aside the High Court's order that Mr Jones personally pay all costs; it held pre‑proceeding conduct could not justify such an award in the limited pt 19 originating application without contested pleadings and findings, but Mr Jones unreasonably opposed the amended application dated 6 July 2018 so must reimburse the trust for actual and reasonable solicitor/client costs incurred after (but not including) that amended application; those costs are to be assessed by a senior barrister and Mr Jones is not entitled to be indemnified by the trust for costs of his opposition; appeal cos…
6 Dec 2018

MCLAUGHLIN v MCLAUGHLIN, [2018] NZHC 3198

Citation

[2018] NZHC 3198
Court

High Court

The Court granted a partial Beddoe order: trustees are authorised to use Ashley Trust funds to meet reasonable and proportionate legal and associated costs to defend only the second cause of action (the application for directions regarding the Homestead Block and future administration) because defending that cause is in the best interests of the Trust; the Court refused to approve trust-funded defence of the hostile breach-of-trust claims (first, third, fourth and fifth causes) and declined retrospective full indemnity for those matters; further expenditure is limited and must be approved by…

New Zealand Case Law

JOHNSTON v BROWN [2021] NZHC 1018

HAMILTON v KIRWAN [2021] NZHC 634

JONES v ANGELA O’KEEFFE [2019] NZCA 222

MCLAUGHLIN v MCLAUGHLIN, [2018] NZHC 3198