Judgments of the Court of Appeal of New Zealand on Proceedings to Review Aspects of the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Mount Erebus Aircraft Disaster: C.A. 95/81New Zealand. Court of Appeal
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Judgments of the Court of Appeal of New Zealand on Proceedings to Review Aspects of the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Mount Erebus Aircraft Disaster: C.A. 95/81
New Zealand. Court of Appeal
Air New Zealand; Aircraft accidents; New Zealand. Royal Commission to Inquire into the Crash on Mount Erebus, Antarctica, of a DC10 Aircraft Operated by Air New Zealand Limited
As already mentioned, the proceedings are by way of application for
review under the Judicature Amendment Act 1972 and are directed against
certain findings in the Report, to which we have referred. The
applicants claim that those findings are invalid, in excess of
jurisdiction or made in circumstances involving unfairness or breach of
natural justice. They seek declarations to that effect and orders
setting aside the findings and quashing the order that Air New Zealand
pay $150,000 as a contribution to the public cost of the inquiry. It is
necessary to consider whether under the Act the Court has jurisdiction
to grant such relief in this case.
By ss. 3 and 4 of the Act relief may be granted only where a "statutory
power" is involved. That term includes a "statutory power of decision".
Since liberalizing amendments made in 1977, "statutory power" includes
power conferred by or under any Act "to make any investigation or
inquiry into the rights, powers, privileges, immunities, duties, or
liabilities of any person" and "statutory power of decision" includes
power conferred by or under any Act "to make a decision ... affecting"
any such rights, powers, privileges, duties or liabilities. Generally
the relief available is confined by s. 4 to that which the applicant
would have been entitled to in any one or more of the proceedings for
mandamus, prohibition, certiorari, declaration or injunction; but there
is a relevant exception in s. 4 (2) whereby if the applicant is entitled
to an order declaring that a decision made in the exercise of a
statutory power of decision is unauthorized or otherwise invalid the
Court may set aside the decision instead.
The first question as to jurisdiction is therefore whether, apart from
the 1972 Act, the applicants could have obtained relief by any of the
proceedings mentioned. The Commission having ceased to exist, it would
be too late to apply for prohibition or an injunction against the first
respondent and mandamus would also be inappropriate. The decision of
this Court in _Reynolds_ v. _Attorney-General_ (1909) 29 N.Z.L.R. 24,
37-38, suggests that once the report has been forwarded to the
Governor-General it may be permanently beyond the reach of certiorari;
this is perhaps a corollary of the view, to which we referred in the
judgment concerning discovery in _Environmental Defence Society Inc._
v. _South Pacific Aluminium Limited_ (C.A. 59/81, judgment 15th June
1981), that a prerogative remedy may not lie against the Sovereign's
representative.
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