By KEVIN TAYLOR
The late Sir Robert Mahuta's last-ditch attempt to seize control of Tainui's executive died yesterday in the courts.
The latest round of court action within the bitterly divided 12-member executive, Te Kaumaarua, has been won by chairman Kingi Porima and his faction.
But the two-minute verbal ruling by Justice Bruce Robertson in the High Court at Hamilton does not solve Tainui's governance problems.
At the start of the hearing the judge said those who wanted to beat each other over the head with the rulebook should be ruled by it as well.
"The parties by their conduct appear to want to play the rulebook at each other and hit each other over the head with the rulebook. It does not make any sense to me."
At issue was the validity of a special meeting of the Waikato Raupatu Trustee Company on Saturday, December 16.
At the meeting, called by Sir Robert's faction and attended only by its members, far-reaching decisions were made amounting to a grab for the tribe's power and pursestrings.
They sacked three members of Mr Porima's group from Tainui's overarching corporate, Tainui Group Holdings (TGH), as well as ousting tribe chief financial officer Michael Crawford, lawyers Rudd Watts & Stone and financial advisers Ferrier Hodgson.
And they decided to halt all business transactions within TGH unless the new board approved them.
Sir Robert's faction then filed papers in court seeking a declaration that its actions were legal.
Yesterday, it found out it were wrong.
At the start of the hearing Justice Robertson asked the court to stand as a mark of respect for Sir Robert, who died on February 1. Many Maori in the public gallery were dressed in mourning black.
Legal arguments then started over the validity of the December 16 meeting, which had been put off from Tuesday, December 12.
Debate centred around holding the adjourned meeting on a Saturday, a non-working day.
Justice Robertson said in his decision that he was "totally satisfied" that it was not open for a meeting to be held on December 16.
An appeal is now possible. A spokesman for the unsuccessful faction said it would now consider whether to take further action.
It was concerned that Mr Porima acted without authority in arranging a deal with the HSBC bank to pay $5 million of a $14.3 million debt, with the balance to be paid by May 31.
Mr Porima has argued that he was authorised to do the deal. HSBC was threatening to foreclose on key tribal property generating $2.5 million in income for the tribe.
Mr Porima said yesterday that he was relieved at the decision and he hoped everyone could now move forward. He said the rival faction was weaker now, and a meeting of the company on Tuesday showed they could at least agree on some things.
"If people still want to go to court that's their right, but I don't want to go back to court all the time."
Decision signals defeat for dead Tainui leader
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