According to the decision, after a 1989 transfer of estate representative for the blocks of land known as Moutere 8B2, the land was sold to Slavo Jagusić in 1999, then to Kevin and Shirley McNeil in 2000.
In 2005, a nationwide project was launched to align Land Information New Zealand (Linz) and Māori Land Court (MLC) records called the Māori Freehold Land Registration project (MFLR).
To promote consistency, Linz implemented a system in the electronic database called the “Māori land flag”.
The warning device is to notify users seeking to register interests against the land in question, that it is, or may be, Māori freehold land. The Ōtaki blocks never had a flag issued on the database.
In 2007, court staff working on the project incorrectly stamped the blocks as General land on the memorial schedule, an entry never authorised by a judge.
A registrar, not connected to the error, gave evidence in court that he could only assume staff were under pressure to complete the project within five years.
The note remained on the memorial schedule and the court made no effort to put a caveat on the title or indicate the status was uncertain in any way.
The mistake went unnoticed for years.
Round Corner Ltd appealed the ruling of Judge Alana Thomas, pictured. Photo / supplied
In 2015, a registrar noticed the anomaly and filed an application to determine the land’s status, but the owners at the time were never notified and the application lay dormant for eight years.
By the time Round Corner bought the blocks in 2021, the 2015 application was already afoot and was finally heard in 2023.
Judge Alana Thomas ruled the land was Māori freehold.
Round Corner appealed her decision on the grounds that the registrar had no authority to file the application, and the company had relied on the land being a General title for its planned retail and residential development.
In a reserved decision released last month, the Māori Appellate Court agreed with Thomas’ ruling, with sharp criticism of the MFLR practices.
“Unfortunately, in the past, there wasn’t a consistent practice of aligning the records, and processes, concerning Māori freehold land between LINZ and the Court,” the decision said.
“This meant that in some cases, Court orders were granted but not registered against the title, and in other cases, interests were registered against the title without first being approved by the Court. Where that occurred, the records held by LINZ and the Court concerning Māori freehold land could be drastically different.”
The judges said they were “surprised” to learn staff had been instructed to treat land as General without judicial determination, calling the approach “clearly wrong”.
“We note from the outset that we have serious concerns over what occurred here,” the recent decision said.
“We were surprised to learn that Court staff had noted on the memorial schedule that the land is General land when no such determination had been made by a judge.
“We were even more surprised to hear that MFLR staff were instructed to take this approach. We do not know who made that decision or where this instruction came from. We do not know if this was a nationwide approach in the MFLR project or if this was specific to the Aotea district.
“This is the first time we have heard of this, despite the large number of applications that have come before the Court as a result of the MFLR project. Clearly, this approach was wrong and this entry should not have been made unless a formal status order had been granted.”
The appellate court also dismissed Round Corner’s claims that Māori land status would undermine value and financing options, pointing to recent banking sector changes and the Reserve Bank’s 2022 work on improving Māori access to capital.
The appeal was dismissed and Judge Thomas’ ruling that the blocks were to remain as Māori freehold land was upheld.
Round Corner did not respond to NZME’s request for comment.
Shannon Pitman is a Whangārei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ngāpuhi/ Ngāti Pūkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.