Supreme Court case information
Listed below are the substantive Supreme Court cases for the year along with appeals still to be determined or cases awaiting hearing.
Information giving an overview of the case is included along with media releases and links to judgments being appealed when available.
All 2024 - 2014 Supreme Court cases dismissed or deemed to be dismissed where a notice of abandonment was received can be found here.
Transcripts for cases heard before the Supreme Court are included provided they are not suppressed. Transcripts from pre-trial hearings are not published until the final disposition of trial. These are unedited transcripts and they are not a formal record of the Court’s proceedings. The Ministry of Justice does not accept responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of any material and recommends that users exercise their own skill and care with respect to its use.
24 June 2024
Case information summary 2024 (as at 21 June 2024) – Cases where leave granted (121 KB)
Case information summary 2024 (as at 21 June 2024) – Cases where leave to appeal decision not yet made (PDF, 125 KB)
All years
Case name
Robert Frank Terry v The Queen
Case number
SC 45/2007
Summary
Criminal – appeal against conviction and sentence – whether Court of Appeal erred in dismissing appeal – whether Court of Appeal failed to uphold the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 – whether a substantial miscarriage of justice may have occurred.CA 378/06 26 June 2007
Result
Leave to appeal dismissed.
31 August 2007
31 August 2007
Leave judgment - leave dismissed
TERRY v R SC 45/2007 [31 August 2007] (PDF, 15 KB)
Judgment appealed from
Case name
Ch’elle Properties (NZ) Limited v Commissioner of Inland Revenue
Case number
SC 46/2007
Summary
Summary Civil appeal – Goods and Services Tax Act 1985 – whether s 76 constitutes an objective or subjective test – whether there can be tax avoidance where there is no tax advantage.CA 126/04 25 June 2007
Result
Application for leave to appeal dismissed. 6 September 2007
Leave judgment - leave dismissed
Judgment appealed from
Case name
Neville Gibson v Minter Ellison Rudd Wattts
Case number
SC 47/2007
Summary
Civil Appeal – whether the appellant should be permitted to place Specialist Legal Aid Advisor reports and Legal Services Agency internal documents before the Court of Appeal – whether the appellant should be permitted to amend his grounds of appeal in the Court of AppealCA 202/05 CA 33/06 20 June 2007
Result
Application for leave to appeal is dismissed.
Costs to respondent $2,500 plus reasonable disbursements.
Costs to respondent $2,500 plus reasonable disbursements.
Leave judgment - leave dismissed
Judgment appealed from
Case name
George Socrates Mamfredos and others v Herbert Equities Limited
Case number
SC 48/2007
Summary
Civil – principles applicable to lodging of caveats – whether, in the circumstances, the applicants (against whom caveat applications were brought) bore and failed to discharge an evidential onus – whether the Court of Appeal erred in fact and law, took irrelevant matters into account or failed to have regard to relevant pieces of evidence in overturning in part the High Court’s decision to dismiss the respondent’s caveat applications.CA 147/06 6 July 2007
Leave judgment - leave dismissed
Judgment appealed from
Case name
Tumu Te Heuheu v Attorney – General and others
Case number
SC 49/2007
Summary
Civil – Treaty of Waitangi – Crown Forest Assets Act 1989 – Te Pumautanga o Te Arawa Settlement Deed, Part 12 – Settlement Deed aimed to settle historical breaches of Treaty in respect of 11 iwi or hapu affiliated with Te Arawa – Settlement Deed would be made unconditional by proposed legislation – Applicants sought declaration that Settlement Deed was in breach of Crown Forest Assets Act 1989, the agreements predating that Act, and the Crown’s fiduciary duties under the Treaty – High Court and Court of Appeal dismissed the claims. Whether the issues are justiciable – whether the agreement predating the 1989 Act (“the July 1989 Agreement” ) was a political compact and therefore unenforceable – whether Crown conduct is or was inconsistent with the July 1989 Agreement – the nature of the Crown’s fiduciary duty to Mäori under the Treaty and the July 1989 Agreement. CA 241/07; CA 247/07 2 July 2007
Leave judgment - leave granted
Result
Application for leave to appeal granted.
8 November 2007
______________________
Appeal withdrawn. No orders as to costs.
4 November 2008
Judgment appealed from
Case name
NZ Maori Council and The Federation of Maori Authorities Inc v Attorney-General and others
Case number
SC 50/2007
Summary
Civil – Treaty of Waitangi – Crown Forest Assets Act 1989 – Te Pumautanga o Te Arawa Settlement Deed, Part 12 – Settlement Deed aimed to settle historical breaches of Treaty in respect of 11 iwi or hapu affiliated with Te Arawa – Settlement Deed would be made unconditional by proposed legislation – Applicants sought declaration that Settlement Deed was in breach of Crown Forest Assets Act 1989, the agreements predating that Act, and the Crown’s fiduciary duties under the Treaty – High Court and Court of Appeal dismissed the claims. Whether the issues are justiciable – whether the agreement predating the 1989 Act (“the July 1989 Agreement” ) was a political compact and therefore unenforceable – whether Crown conduct is or was inconsistent with the July 1989 Agreement – the nature of the Crown’s fiduciary duty to Mäori under the Treaty and the July 1989 Agreement. CA 241/07; CA 247/07 2 July 2007
Leave judgment - leave granted
Judgment appealed from
Grant to intervene
Result
Application for leave to appeal granted.
8 November 2007
__________________
Appeal withdrawn. No orders as to costs.
4 November 2008
Case name
George Charlie Baker v The Queen
Case number
SC 51/2007
Summary
Criminal appeal – Sentencing Act 2002 – whether trial judge correctly applied s 104 in light of mitigating factor of appellant’s guilty plea – whether high publicity surrounding case lead to an unduly harsh sentence – whether trial judge gave sufficient weight to appellant’ s psychiatric history. CA 36/07 5 July 2007
Result
Application for leave to appeal dismissed.
19 September 2007
19 September 2007
Leave judgment - leave dismissed
BAKER V R SC 51/2007 [19 September 2007] (PDF, 14 KB)
Judgment appealed from
Case name
Alex Kwong Wong v The Queen
Case number
SC 53/2007
Summary
Summary Criminal – appeal against convictions – serious drug offending – whether trial should have proceeded with ten jurors – consistency of guilty verdicts with acquittal of the accused on other counts and acquittal of co-accused – whether Court of Appeal correctly applied R v H [2000] 2 NZLR 581 – whether verdict in relation to one (money laundering) count is unreasonable or cannot be supported having regard to the evidence – applicant seeking leave to raise various other new grounds as evidencing a substantial miscarriage of justice at trial.CA 329/06 6 July 2007
Result
Application for leave to appeal granted.
24 September 2007
________________________
Appeal allowed, convictions set aside. New trial ordered.
18 April 2008
24 September 2007
________________________
Appeal allowed, convictions set aside. New trial ordered.
18 April 2008
Substantive judgment
ALEX KWONG WONG v R SC 53/2007 [18 April 2008] (PDF, 26 KB)
Judgment appealed from
Application for rehearing or addition of new ground of appeal
Substantive judgment
Transcript
Case name
Mustafa Can v The Queen
Case number
SC 54/2007
Summary
Criminal – sexual violation – s 128 Crimes Act 1961 – whether the jury direction on the applicant’s reasonable belief in consent, based on the test in R v Gutuama (Court of Appeal, CA 275/01, 13 December 2001), was in conflict with the statutory language in s 128 Crimes Act 1961 – whether expert evidence as to the intellectual limitations of the complainant was wrongly admitted.CA 492/05 16 July 2007
Result
Application for leave to appeal dismissed. 27 November 2007
Leave judgment - leave dismissed
MUSTAFA CAN v R SC 54/2007 [27 November 2007] (PDF, 19 KB)
Judgment appealed from
Case name
Transpower New Zealand Limited v Todd Energy Limited
Case number
SC 55/2007
Summary
Civil Appeal – whether summary judgment should have been issued for the defendant – whether some or all of the actions against the applicant should be struck out – whether the Court of Appeal erred in finding that section 19 of the Electricity Amendment Act 2001 did not amount to an authorisation under section 43 of the Commerce Act 1986 – whether the Court of Appeal erred in finding that long term infrastructure substitution between embedded generation and transmission is arguably contemplated by the Commerce Act 1986 definition of “market” – whether the respondent’s claim is a complaint that the applicant charges too much – whether such a complaint is capable of amounting to a breach of Part 2 of the Commerce Act 1986 – whether the Court of Appeal applied a more demanding standard for summary judgment – whether the Court of Appeal erred by finding that the respondent can choose between local and national electricity markets when presenting its case at trial – whether the Court of Appeal erred by allowing the argument that the respondent’s local electricity generation competes with the applicant’s transmission services to go to trial when that argument was struck out in another case – whether a claim that the applicant’ s “tying” or ”unbundling” of services has the purpose or likely effect of substantially lessening competition should go to trial where the services were not able to be tied or bundled and the claim is in substance a claim about overcharging. CA 80/05 and CA 177/06 20 July 2007
Result
Application for leave to appeal and cross appeal dismissed. 13 December 2007
Leave judgment - leave dismissed
Judgment appealed from
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