Court of Appeal on Land Class Action
On 11 & 12 June 2025 the Court of Appeal heard appeals by EQC and the homeowners about the land class action certified in the High Court on 14 December 2023 as Freer & anor v EQC [2023] NZHC 3662. The High Court granted leave to appeal on 27 May 2024 in Freer & anor v EQC [2024] NZHC 1346 .
EQC asked for the certification to be set aside saying that the Mcevedy/Freer claim is/was meritless, statute barred and that they were not good representatives. McEvedy & Freer wanted the class increased to include owners whose land had Increased Flooding Vulnerability as well as assignees of claims and owners that had sold the land but kept the claim. McEvedy & Freer also wanted to be able to challenge the correctness of the 2014 declaratory judgment in EQC v ICNZ & ors [2014] NZHC 3138 that land is insured for indemnity value only. This was the subject of the judgment in Freer & anor v EQC [2023] NZHC 1301.
The Judges in the Court of Appeal were Courtney J, Ellis J and Campbell J. No predictions of when the judgment will be given.
