Fox centre litigants await court ruling

Josephine Grierson, seen here with one of her QCs Bruce Stewart, is part-owner of the Fox shopping centre. Picture / Brett Phibbs

Litigants in the long-running dispute over Auckland's Fox outlet shopping centre are awaiting the judgement of the High Court at Auckland.

The case, brought against Fox and North Shore City Council by Westfield and Northcote Mainstreet, ran from Monday to Thursday last week and concentrated on Resource Management Act issues.

Westfield wants Judge Raynor Asher to rule that the way Fox got its second resource consent was a breach of the act.

In April, Westfield won a Supreme Court case over the first resource consent. It won the case first in High Court last February, but the Court of Appeal reinstated that first consent. So it went to the Supreme Court.

Neither that first resource consent nor the second at the heart of the latest case was notified by North Shore City Council.

Fox owner Discount Brands claimed in court last week that the case was being brought for anti-competitive reasons. Fox is a joint venture between Paul Duffy's Dominion Funds and Josephine Grierson.

Westfield has 11 malls in New Zealand and 42 in Australia, including its new 4.2ha A$180 million ($192.5 million) Helensvale mall on the Gold Coast.