FRUCOR BEVERAGES LTD AND OTHERS V BLUMBERG AND OTHERS

[2019] NZCA 547, New Zealand Court of Appeal, Justice French, Justice Collins and Justice Wild, 11 November 2019

Insurance (motor) – Hire of replacement vehicle – Champerty – Whether hiring charges could be recovered from the defendant – Reasonableness of the charges – Effect of delay to repairs

Following a collision between vehicles belonging to the parties, the claimant hired a vehicle from Right2Drive (New Zealand) Ltd (R2D), which provided the claimant with a replacement vehicle on terms that no hiring charges were payable only to the extent that they were irrecoverable in an action against the defendant. The cause of action was under the agreement exercisable by R2D. If the claim was lost, R2D's policy was to waive the charges. In the present proceedings the claimant sought to recover the hire charges from the defendant's motor insurers. The hiring was for 33 days and, with tax, was in the total sum of NZ$4,407.33.