Vero, AMI and AA Insurance refused to pay $4.9M of rental hire costs claimed by not at fault drivers where their insured drivers were at fault. Right to Drive funded the rental cars in return for rights against the insured driver(s) and their insurers. It sued to recover from the insurers. The insurers denied liability for many reasons. The insurers lost in the High Court. In Frucor Beverages Ltd & ors v Blumberg & ors [2019] NZCA 547 the Court of Appeal dismissed the insurers’ appeal(s) and commented about the lack of merit of the appeals. Previous Australian and United Kingdom cases were similar. The Court of Appeal makes very critical comments about the insurers in paras [151] to [162] of the judgment.
In Birchs Road Ltd v EQC & anor [2019] NZHC 2439 the High Court (DunninghamJ) considered an application to transfer a court proceeding in process for 3 years with a trial date commencing 21 October 2019 where the defendants had concerns about their ability to recover costs from the homeowner if the claim was transferred to the Earthquake Tribunal. In Fraser v EQC & anor [2019] NZHC 2768 the High Court (Lester AJ) decided that the High Court retained jurisdiction to deal with costs in respect of a proceeding transferred to the Earthquake Tribunal. Fraser is notable for a wasted costs order against the homeowner for changing lawyers and engineers.
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