August 2017

The powers of a business rescue practitioner to suspend contracts has given rise to concern and speculation as to the effect of the exercise of those rights in business rescue and the implications for creditors. It has been clarified that a creditor whose agreement is suspended in business rescue has the right to withhold the

According to section 7(1) of the Promotion of Access to Information Act, the act does not apply to a record requested for the purpose of civil proceedings which have already commenced.

Where a potential claimant requests information from the other party to pursue the claim, the rule of thumb is whether the records requested are

A New Zealand court has held that a policy undertaking by an insurer to reinstate the sum insured ‘after we have paid a claim under this policy’ does not give the insured a reinstatement right until a claim is actually paid. Where a loss happened, followed soon after by another loss before the first claim

In an important development of the law of interpretation of contracts, the Constitutional Court held in July 2017 that where ordinary laypeople use ordinary words in a contract, their understanding of the meaning of the words used must not be overridden by a lawyer’s understanding based on their knowledge of legal principles not familiar to

Where the period of a lease agreement is extended, the terms of that agreement will apply during the extended period unless the context or the parties’ intention indicates otherwise. Where parties to a lease simply say that they want to extend the lease period and stipulate nothing else, then the provisions relating not only to