Henderson wins Supreme Court appeal

Christchurch developer Dave Henderson has won a Supreme Court case to cancel a deal to buy an office block.

His Property Ventures Investments challenged a Court of Appeal decision and won.

Although Henderson's Property Ventures is in receivership, another one of his companies won the court battle.

Henderson's business struck a deal with Regalwood Holdings to buy a Christchurch office building at 78 Lichfield St for $1.5 million.

Regalwood warranted in the contract that the building would comply with the Building Act once the sale was settled. But the buyer found that was not the case and that the cost of fixing problems was about $500,000.

Regalwood demanded the agreement continue - it wanted settlement in full and went to the High Court to get summary judgment.

The High Court and the Court of Appeal found that Regalwood was entitled to demand settlement in full even if there had been a breach of warranty. But the Supreme Court unanimously allowed Property Venture's appeal, releasing its decision yesterday.

The summary judgment order would be set aside and the case remitted to the High Court for trial, the Supreme Court decided.