Tindall v Far North District Council (HC)

Sarah Macky, together with senior counsel, acted for the Far North District Council (the council) defending it from claims of nuisance and negligence.

The plaintiffs, oyster farmers in the Waikare Inlet in the Bay of Islands, alleged that three outbreaks of gastro-enteritis (linked epidemiologically to the consumption of their oysters) were caused by the council’s use, operation and management of the Kawakawa sewerage reticulation and treatment plant.

The oyster farmers failed to prove that any discharge from the Kawakawa Scheme caused the contamination and that the damage was reasonably foreseeable.  Those findings were fatal to the claims.  

The council escaped liability and was awarded costs.