New Zealand Legislation: Acts

14 Liability in tort

• (1) Where any proceedings are brought in any Court under the provisions of the Occupiers' Liability Act 1962 or in tort or in respect of an alleged breach of any statutory duty and it is required by law that the proceedings be brought against the owner or occupier of any particular parcel of land or premises, the provisions of this section shall apply notwithstanding any Act or rule of law to the contrary.

  (2) For the purposes of any proceedings to which this section applies:

  • (a) The common property and each of the units shall be separate premises; and

  • (b) Where the proceedings are brought in respect of the common property, the body corporate shall be deemed to be the owner and the occupier of the common property, and any judgment which may be awarded to the plaintiff shall be entered against the body corporate accordingly:

    Provided that, where the cause of action arose through the negligence or unauthorised act or omission of one or more of the proprietors or former proprietors, the body corporate may join that proprietor or those proprietors as co-defendants, and judgment may be given against the body corporate and such proprietor or proprietors jointly and severally.

  (3) The amount of any judgment (including costs) given jointly and severally as provided in subsection (2) of this section may be recovered as a debt by the body corporate from the proprietor or proprietors against whom judgment is given, in an action in any Court of competent jurisdiction.

  (4) Where the defendant in any proceedings to which this section applies is the body corporate, the proprietors of the units at the time when judgment is entered shall be deemed to have guaranteed to the plaintiff the payment by the body corporate of the full amount awarded by way of judgment:

  Provided that the liability of each such proprietor shall be limited to an amount equal to such part of the total sum payable by the body corporate in accordance with the judgment, less the amount which the body corporate can recover under any policy of insurance, and less any amount paid by a proprietor against whom judgment is given pursuant to subsection (2) of this section or recovered from him pursuant to subsection (3) of this section, as is proportionate to the unit entitlement of his unit:

  Provided also that any amount recovered from a proprietor, pursuant to subsection (3) of this section, after satisfaction of the judgment by the body corporate, shall (subject to any right of set-off) be refunded to those proprietors who have made a payment under this subsection, in proportion to the amount of their payments.

  (5) Where any proprietor pays to the plaintiff any sum which he is liable to pay under the provisions of subsection (4) of this section, he shall be entitled to recover the same as a debt in an action in any Court of competent jurisdiction from the body corporate:

  Provided that nothing in this subsection shall prevent the body corporate in such an action from claiming any sum due to it from that proprietor under the provisions of this Act by way of set-off.

  (6) If the body corporate at a general meeting so resolves, any sum payable by it in accordance with the provisions of this section may be paid out of any general fund established by it.