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Limitation periods for old insurance claims
Inicio Ltd v Tower Insurance Ltd [2020] NZHC 90
This recent High Court decision examines the effect of an acknowledgement of liability on the limitation period applying to an insurance claim.
Read MoreGeorge v Sell Smart Bis Ltd [2019] NZHC 37
Recently, the High Court decided that a claim for breach of fiduciary duty against a mortgage broker was barred under the Limitation Act 1950 (the Act). The Court applied by analogy the limitation period that applies to contractual/tortious claims. This decision is very important in clarifying the time limit which will apply to claims for breach of fiduciary duty, such as acting in a conflict of interest or failing to act honestly in the client’s interests.
Read MoreWorkplace manslaughter (also referred to as industrial/corporate manslaughter) has been an offence in the United Kingdom since 2008. Closer to home, Victoria and the Northern Territory have joined the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and Queensland as the latest Australian jurisdictions to pass workplace manslaughter laws.
Read More2020 has brought with it exciting new changes, least of which three new staff members joining the FL team.
Read MoreShirley Chan graduated from the University of Auckland with a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) and a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in French and History. She was admitted to the bar in February 2018.
Read MoreGreg Potter completed a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Management at the University of Auckland. He gained commercial dispute resolution experience at a specialist litigation firm while completing the final six months of his degrees in 2019. He joined Fee Langstone in January 2020.
Read MoreThe Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2020 rankings have just been released and we are delighted to have retained our top tier firm status for insurance.
We are very pleased to announce Fee Langstone was ranked in Band 1 for Insurance in the 2020 Chambers Asia-Pacific Rankings. Philippa Fee was named as a Notable Practitioner and was ranked as Band 1 Lawyer for Insurance. Partner Pauline Davies was also singled out as a Band 2 Lawyer for Shipping.
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Fruit Shippers Ltd v Petrie and Noboa [2019] NZHC 2694
In this recent High Court decision, Chapman Tripp was restrained from acting in a proceeding where it had previously provided corporate and strategic advice to the defendants.
Read MoreCourt of Appeal upholds High Court decision on liability for cost of hiring replacement car
Frucor Beverages Limited and Ors v Blumberg and Ors [2019] NZCA 547
The Court of Appeal recently upheld the High Court decision of Blumberg v Frucor Beverages Ltd, finding that an at-fault driver (or their insurer) is liable for the cost of a not-at-fault driver’s replacement hire vehicle following a collision.
Read MoreOn Thursday 17 October, we held our annual client function. This year we had an ‘Area 51 & Other Conspiracies’ theme and enjoyed getting creative and dressing up as everything from extra-terrestrials to US military personnel. A special mention to partner Matthew Atkinson who had most of his body painted blue! It was a weird and wonderful evening and we were thrilled to see some of our clients donning handmade tinfoil hats in the spirit of the occasion. Thank you all for coming along, and we look forward to next year’s even
Read MoreIn a landmark decision, the Court of Appeal recently granted leave for a class action to be brought against government-owned settlement agency Southern Response on an opt-out basis.
Read MoreThe Construction Contracts Act 2002 (CCA) was meant to ensure money was paid, quickly and efficiently, to parties to a construction contract. But, because of recent amendment, it now represents a potential trap for design professionals to fall into.
Read MoreLast week, we at Fee Langstone took some time out of our busy days for mindfulness and self-care as part of Mental Health Awareness Week. Each day we enjoyed a different wellness activity.
FL Staff working hard at Eat My Lunch HQ
On Monday, we got a chance to showcase our culinary skills helping prepare and pack lunches with the amazing volunteers at Eat My Lunch. This business works to ensure that for every lunch purchased, one is provided to a school child. To check out their great work visit: https://www.eatmylunch.nz/
On Tuesday, a group of solicitors and support staff took some time to calm and centre ourselves with lunchtime yoga. This gave us the opportunity to slow down and relieve stress, while also reducing muscle tension.
Mindfulness Colouring (inside the lines of course!)
Wednesday was an inside kind of day, and we had fun with some mindful colouring-in. While being a pleasurable pastime in itself, mindful colouring has been shown to decrease anxiety and lessen symptoms of stress.
We braved stormy weather on Thursday lunchtime to walk the pink Lightpath. (Reports of thunder and lightning may have been greatly exaggerated.) Kit, our fantastic, fluffy Associate (pictured), led the way. If you are looking for walks around the Auckland region check out: https://at.govt.nz/cycling-walking/cycle-walking-maps/
Kit, Senior Fluff Associate
We wrapped up the week with a delicious morning tea. Taking note of what we had learned at yoga earlier in the week about balance, there were healthy treats, but balanced by not so healthy sausage rolls!
As a final update, the Supreme Court gave their decision in the Xu saga, with the majority of the Supreme Court dismissing Mr Xu’s appeal. This decision confirms that the entitlement under an insurance policy to replacement benefits, conditional upon reinstatement by the insured, are personal to the original insured and cannot be assigned.
Read MoreIn the first successful privacy case since 2012, the High Court has released its decision in the now long-standing battle between David Henderson, former director of Property Ventures Ltd (PVL), and PVL’s appointed liquidator, Robert Walker.
Read MoreA, B and C v D and E Limited [2019] NZHC 992
Could a lawyer be liable to disappointed children for a client’s decision to transfer assets to a trust?
One of the fundamental duties of a solicitor is to implement the instructions given to him or her by a client. But what if those instructions are morally dubious? Where a third party suffers a loss, can the lawyer say that he or she was only following instructions? The answer is a clear ‘no’ if the client’s instruction relates to a breach of the client’s fiduciary duties. A recent case suggests that such breaches might be more common than previously thought.
Read MoreJ & NA Shanks Ltd v Heli Support New Zealand Ltd [2019] NZHC 1615
Oscar Wilde once wrote, “life imitates art far more than art imitates life”.
It seems that this applies to litigation as well. Pauline Davies and Sam Learmonth recently acted for the plaintiff in a five-day High Court trial, seeking recovery of a payment made by insurers to a helicopter owner after the helicopter was damaged in a crash. The defendant was a maintenance engineer and it was alleged that the crash was caused by negligent workmanship. After the trial, Pauline and Sam were surprised to find that the issue in dispute had already been discussed in some detail in John Grisham’s novel, Gray Mountain.
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In her last two years of school Hannah was set on studying chemical or civil engineering at university but instead she chose law and French and graduated from Auckland University with an LLB and BA.
She gained fluency in French not just through study here but in immersion in France. First came an exchange trip through school and then, in her final year of her degrees, an exchange semester at Université Jean Moulin in Lyon where she combined both disciplines by taking law papers taught in French. She studied translation at university and has carried out some translation of legal work.
Hannah started out her legal career at a litigation firm in Auckland, primarily acting for homeowners in disputes arising from the Canterbury earthquakes. She was admitted in March 2019 and started at Fee Langstone in August 2019.
"Insurance law attracts me because it is unique as while it is a specialised area of practice, it applies to a wide variety of disputes, with insureds ranging from individuals to multinational companies. The different areas of expertise in so many fields fascinate me."
"In my experience so far, like others, I think what really sets Fee Langstone apart is the people. I’m lucky to be joining a firm where everyone is highly skilled at what they do but equally very welcoming and down to earth."
When asked to list three things still left on her bucket list she replied: "Go skydiving, visit Antarctica, and learn more languages. I want to learn the language of every new place I visit as soon as I get there."
You never know. Perhaps Fee Langstone will get an instruction requiring someone to jump from a Hercules aircraft into the Argentinian base.
Hannah joined Fee Langstone around the same time as here. Read more about her here
At Fee Langstone we’re experts in the field of insurance law. We are a team of skilled litigation lawyers, able to work with you to provide strategies and robust solutions, fast.
Birchfield v Birchfield [2026] NZCA 477 is an interesting decision commenting on the limits of costs arising from Judicial Settlement Conferences.
The High Court ordered $22,848.67 in wasted costs against a party following an unsuccessful JSC. Essentially, the Judge considered that the party had failed to engage meaningfully in the process by refusing to shift from his pre-JSC position.
A few months ago, the London Engineering Group (LEG) announced that it will be publishing revised LEG clauses later this year to provide greater clarity for the construction insurance market. The announcement follows the 2023 U.S. Federal Court decision in South Capitol Bridgebuilders v Lexington Insurance in which LEG 3 was described as “ambiguous—egregiously so” and “internally inconsistent and bordering incomprehensible”. This does not surprise us. We have encountered similar concerns with LEG 3 in the context of large construction projects in New Zealand. Despite these longstanding issues, the clause remains widely used, making the proposed revisions a welcome development.
We turned up the volume for this year’s Client Function with a night of glam rock! A fantastic night spent with clients and friends of the firm. Thanks to everyone who joined us and helped make it such a great evening.
The Star Entertainment Sydney Properties Pty Ltd v Buildcorp Group Pty Ltd [2026] NSWSC 27
The boundary between defective work and “property damage” is regularly a disputed issue in a construction insurance context. Under a liability policy, the builder’s liability for damage will ordinarily trigger the policy’s insuring clause. However, the policy will usually exclude cover for the builder’s defective work, or perhaps only provide cover to a limited extent.
The District Court has imposed fines totalling $1.104 million on Brand Developers Limited (BDL), trading as TV Shop, following convictions on 13 charges under the Fair Trading Act 1986 (FTA). The decision is a significant recent penalty judgment and provides useful guidance on how the courts assess culpability for misleading conduct affecting consumers.
The Health and Safety at Work Amendment Bill has been reported back by the Education and Workforce Committee. The Committee has recommended, by majority, that the Bill be passed with amendments.
The Bill is intended to make the health and safety regime clearer and more focused on serious risks. It does this by introducing the concept of “critical risk”, changing some duties for smaller businesses, clarifying officer and landowner responsibilities, strengthening Approved Codes of Practice, and addressing how the Health and Safety at Work Act interacts with other laws.
In Candida Trustee Co Ltd v Teak Construction Group Ltd (in liq) [2026] NZHC 1352, the High Court considered whether a claimant creditor could compel liquidators to disclose a company’s professional indemnity insurance information prior to the claim being resolved.
In contract works claims, a frequent dispute – for both insurers and insureds – is precisely where to draw the line between cover for new “damage” and excluded construction defects. The damage and defects are often interlinked and untangling the issue involves technical evidence.
For anyone treating the upcoming Contracts of Insurance Act (‘CoIA’) as a box ticking exercise, the FMA’s open letter to insurers last week is a clear warning. The FMA expects insurers to be actively preparing for CoIA now, and has confirmed that implementation will form part of its ongoing monitoring and enforcement activities.
Auckland
Level 18, 51 Shortland Street
Auckland 1010
Tel. +64 9 373 0050
reception@feelangstone.co.nz
Christchurch
Level 1, 83 Lichfield Street
Christchurch 8011
Tel: +64 3 371 4622
