Since 1982 Peter has appeared regularly in civil, criminal and family appeals to the High Court.   Most of the appeals have been of a routine nature and relatively few have been reported. 

 

C v District Court at Dunedin (unreported) 1993 Holland J. This was a successful application to judicially review the Chief Youth Court Judge in relation to direction by that Judge as to whether or not a young person charged with very serious criminal offending should be tried in the Youth Court or the High Court. 

 

Police v Vialle. This was a successful criminal appeal from the District Court to the High Court subsequently appealed further by the Crown to the Court of Appeal. 

A number of matrimonial property cases were also appealed to the High Court. A typical recent example being Cassidy v Cassidy [2003] 1 NZLR 826. This case involved some interesting issues about whether or not substantial items of property could be said to have been “acquired out of” relationship property. 

 

A number of Planning Tribunal/Resource Management cases were also appellate work in the High Court. Some significant examples include Foodstuffs (South Island) Limited v Christchurch City Council [1999] NZRMA 481. This was a major case interpreting section 7 of the Resource Management Act; and Queenstown Casinos Limited v Dunedin City Council [1998] NZRMA 209. This case raised important issues regarding the issue of compliance certificates by a local authority.