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Court refuses to correct its own error !

Wednesday 2 December 2015, 8:36PM

By New Zealand Justice Forum

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Justice Randerson
Justice Randerson Credit: NZ Justice

WELLINGTON

Justices Randerson, French, and Kos of the New Zealand Court of Appeal today refused to grant an application to correct errors in a sealed Judgment of the Court, recently found to be materially different from the actual decision of the Court.

The original decision and orders of the Court in 2003 awarded costs to the executors of a deceased estate, however the disputed judgment issued a week later differed from the decision by recording the costs were awarded to one of the parties in their personal capacity.

The Court of Appeal rules provide for the correction of a judgment or order which is drawn up in a way that does not express what was actually decided and intended. The defective judgment before the Court differed from the decision and allowed one of the executors to bring personal bankruptcy proceedings against a beneficiary of the estate.

The Court said in its judgment- “Some form of error appears to have occurred given the discrepancy between the reasons for judgment and the sealed order but we are unable to determine some 12 years after the event how this came about or which version is correct.”

Conversely in its conclusion the Court said, “As we see it the costs order could only have been in favour of the parties in their personal capacity”

This is an extraordinary example of scrambled logic, which firstly records that the Court cannot decide whether or not its own decision and order is correct or if the sealed judgment prepared by a solicitor is faulty, then in the final paragraph upholds the contested judgment byruling the costs could only be in favour of the parties in their personal capacity.