Members of the legal teams immersed in the Nelson Tenths case being heard in the Wellington High Court were welcomed on to Motueka's Te Āwhina Marae with a pōwhiri led by challenger Tamu Mausii. Photo / Melissa Banks
Members of the legal teams immersed in the Nelson Tenths case being heard in the Wellington High Court were welcomed on to Motueka's Te Āwhina Marae with a pōwhiri led by challenger Tamu Mausii. Photo / Melissa Banks
One of New Zealand’s oldest property law claims is on the home straight of a 10-week trial aimed at resolving an almost 200-year-old land dispute.
Closing submissions start on Monday in the High Court at Wellington on a case designed to determine the extent of the Crown’s breaches, any defences it had and potential remedies in the long-running saga of the Nelson Tenths.
The High Court trial follows a Supreme Court decision in 2017 that said the Crown had a duty to honour an original agreement to reserve 15,100 acres of land as the Nelson Tenths Reserves during settlement.
Customary Māori landowners in the top of the South Island have been fighting for justice since the 1840s over promises made but never fulfilled when the New Zealand Company bought land for the Nelson settlement.
The trial is about to enter its ninth week, following a visit to the Nelson region this week by legal representatives for the applicant and Crown as the defendant, plus Justice Rebecca Edwards who is hearing the case.
They were welcomed with a pōwhiri at Te Āwhina Marae, which was a focal point for the whānau, hāpu and iwi of Motueka.
Justice Rebecca Edwards is hearing the 10-week remedies trial in the Wellington High Court. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The trial has been described as one of the largest pieces of litigation against the Crown this country has seen.
Nelson-based Wakatū Incorporation has been supporting the case fronted by Kaumātua Rore Stafford as representative of the Māori customary landowners - the descendants of those tūpunaidentified by the Native Land Court in 1892.
The legal case did not involve private land, but land held by the Crown. Neither was it a Treaty claim but one that had traversed the courts over decades as a private breach of trust.
The court heard on opening that losses for Nelson Māori over unresolved land deals might have amounted to more than $1 billion.
The Crown apologised for its historic role in matters that gave rise to grievances among Māori in the top of the South Island.
However, it indicated in its “mini opening” on the second day of the trial that it was unlikely to budge on the extent of remedies sought to resolve breaches.
The Crown said in its substantive opening on week five of the hearing that the Supreme Court’s recognition of a fiduciary duty was “narrowly tailored to the circumstances arising in the case”.
It argued that none of the “alleged breaches” could be conclusively established as breaches of fiduciary duty and it was now too late to do justice because the claims were time-barred and “barred by laches and acquiescence”.
The Crown said the plaintiff’s story was repeated throughout the country, that Stafford and the customary owners were not alone in their grievance, and that the Crown had attempted to atone for this.
Wakatū CEO Kerensa Johnston told NZME today that she felt the case “stands alone in terms of its significance”.
She said whānau from around the country and from Australia had arrived at court throughout the trial to lend their support, had brought in kai and even a ukelele.
“Bringing a little bit of us into the courtroom is inspiring,” she said.
Johnston said they were now on the home straight in terms of summing up and closing submissions.
“We feel hopeful that we’re now closer to a resolution. It’s been over 14 years now in terms of this litigation alone, and we’ve put our best case forward.
“From there, it’s a bit of a waiting game and we expect the judgement to take a bit of time to write.”
Johnston said they hoped to have a decision within the first few months of next year.
Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.
