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Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2006 16:14:43 +1300 From: Barry Allan Subject: Exemplary Damages
The New Zealand Court of Appeal (Paper Reclaim Ltd v Aotearoa International CA 70/04 - available on http://www.nzlii.org in a month or two) has today ruled decisively that exemplary damages have no part at all to play in the law of contract. Not that this case was ever a suitable one for even thinking about exemplary damages, but it is nice to have clarity. This finally brings us into line with most of the Commonwealth jurisdictions after a long period of uncertainty. I think this leaves Canada as the one place where a form of exemplary damages are available. The Court refused to even keep the possibility open by suggesting that they might be available in very rare cases, saying that having such a possibility would lead to unsuccessful strike out actions, unnecessary trials and that it would be "quite wrong to give plaintiffs a powerful weapon with which they can harass defendants and, perhaps, extract large settlements because the costs of defending even an unmeritorious claim may be huge".
Barry
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