Wellington City Council v Registrar of Companies & Ors (Salamanca Investments Ltd) (HC)

This was an enforcement action brought by the council  to restore a developer to the Companies Register, so in turn it could be joined as a party to a Weathertight Homes Tribunal case (where the council is being sued for $21million for defects in the St Paul’s apartment complex).  The council was successful in restoring the developer and obtaining a number of ancilliary orders in circumstances where the former directors and shareholder of the developer argued that the council was not a creditor of the developer or someone with an undischarged claim.  The result means that those behind the developer cannot turn their backs on the owners of the apartment building and the council, as the profits withdrawn from the development project may be traced.  As a result of this judgment the developer has been joined to the tribunal claim and there is a good chance that the claim will now settle.