Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2006 13:59:43

From: Jason Neyers

Subject: Exemplary Damages

Hurray for the NZCA.

By the way, when are appeals to the PC being stopped or has that happened already?

Cheers,

----- Original Message -----
From: Barry Allan
Date: Monday, March 13, 2006 10:14 pm
Subject: ODG: 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".

--
Jason Neyers
January Term Director
Assistant Professor of Law
Faculty of Law
University of Western Ontario
N6A 3K7
(519) 661-2111 x. 88435

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