Business Law Library & Tracker
Liquidation & Restructuring
Distress, creditor claims, liquidation, restructuring and director decisions.
Sources last reviewed 28 July 2026
Main law guides
157
Acts, regulations and codes worth reading first
Topics
60
Plain-English clusters
Published case explainers
96
Selected cases with a business lesson
Tracked updates
8
New, amended & reviewed
Plain-English explainers, not legal advice. Use the linked official source for section-level detail, and get advice for your situation.
Get legal helpMain laws
Accident Compensation Act 2001
2001 No 49
Employment Relations Act 2000
2000 No 24
Insolvency Act 2006
2006 No 55
Medicines Act 1981
1981 No 118
National Animal Identification and Tracing Act 2012
2012 No 2
Farm Debt Mediation Act 2019
2019 No 73
Corporations (Investigation and Management) Act 1989
1989 No 11
Deposit Takers Act 2023
2023 No 35
Financial Reporting Act 2013
2013 No 101
Kiwifruit Industry Restructuring Act 1999
1999 No 95
Te Ture Whenua Maori Act 1993
1993 No 4
Dairy Industry Restructuring Act 2001
2001 No 51
Insolvency (Cross-border) Act 2006
2006 No 57
Ship Registration Act 1992
1992 No 89
Insurance Intermediaries Act 1994
1994 No 41
Insolvency Practitioners Regulation Act 2019
2019 No 29
Cases
Halse & Anor v Hamilton City Council
If your business settles an employment dispute through MBIE mediation, do not treat the record of settlement as a one-off document that fades away with time. In...
Healey v Health New Zealand
The practical lesson is procedural. An employee does not need to say "I am raising a personal grievance" for a grievance to be raised. If their communications,...
Lyttelton Port Company Ltd v Maritime Union of New Zealand and Anor
Employers planning restructures should carefully review their collective agreements to ensure they meet consultation requirements. The Court confirmed that...
Westgate Town Centre Limited (In Liquidation) v Westgate Properties Limited
If an outcome is commercially critical, put it into the contract in clear operational terms. Do not assume a shared project vision, planning framework or agreed...
Yang v Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand
Employers must be transparent and fair when addressing performance concerns, especially in regulated environments. If an employee is placed on a supported training...
Television New Zealand Ltd v E Tū Incorporated
Employers must carefully follow the consultation and participation requirements in their collective agreements, especially when making significant changes such as...
Le Gros v Fonterra Cooperative Group Ltd
Employers should review their employment agreements and policies to ensure clarity around long service leave entitlements. This case highlights the importance of...
MGK Homes Ltd v Yoon
Employers must be careful when ending an employment relationship, especially with migrant workers. If an employee is dismissed without proper process or...
New Zealand Steel Ltd v Haddad
New Zealand Steel Ltd v Haddad shows that employers must not only follow the steps of a redundancy process, but also act fairly and reasonably throughout....
Pact Group v Robinson
Employers must ensure that disciplinary actions are based on clear and substantiated grounds, and that processes are conducted fairly and transparently. Failure to...
Pyne v Invacare New Zealand Ltd
Employers should base redundancy decisions on genuine operational needs and adhere to employment agreements. Failing to explore alternative employment options or...
Yan v Mainzeal Property and Construction Ltd (in liquidation)
Directors of a group company need evidence that promised support is real, sufficient and available when required. Comfort from a shareholder or related company is...
Debut Homes Ltd (in liquidation) v Cooper
A controlled wind-down still needs a lawful creditor plan. Directors should not keep trading merely because completion may improve the net position if the plan...
Riki Scott Steen Walls v Ulsterman Holdings Limited (In Liquidation)
The practical lesson is direct. If you are served with court proceedings, especially by liquidators, do not wait for a second warning. In this case, the defendant...
McIntosh v Fisk
Money received before a collapse is not automatically safe. Liquidators may distinguish between value genuinely supplied and apparent profit generated only by an...
David Charles Browne v David Ross Petterson as Liquidator of Polyethylene Pipe Systems Limited (in liq)
Read this case as a caution about timing, purpose and records. It is not a broad rule that every insider payment or shareholder security is invalid. The lesson is...
John Gilbert and QSM Trustees Limited (in receivership and in liquidation) v Body Corporate 162791
Read this case as a strong warning rather than a neat bright-line rule. Do not assume body corporate levies are just an old debt that stays with the owner company...
Sportzone Motorcycles Limited (in liquidation) and Motor Trade Finances Limited v Commerce Commission
The practical lesson from this case is to build each fee from the event that triggers it. If a fee is charged when a loan is set up, the business should be able to...
Allied Concrete Ltd v Meltzer
If a customer is in financial trouble, getting paid is not always the end of the story. Suppliers should keep evidence of ordinary trading, value given and what...
Vikram Kumar and Nirupama Kumar v Station Properties Limited (in liquidation and in receivership)
For business owners, the core lesson is simple: do not assume you can enforce a contract just because the other side has stopped cooperating. Before issuing a...
BFSL 2007 Ltd & Ors (In Liquidation) v Steigrad
If your business buys D&O or similar liability cover, do not assume the policy limit will be freely available both to defend the claim and to pay any eventual...
P (SC 87/2012) v Bridgecorp Ltd (In Receivership and in Liquidation)
If your business uses settlement deeds, payment plans or workout arrangements, this case is a reminder to draft enforcement documents carefully. A pre-signed...
Evgeny Orlov v Anza Distributing (NZ) Limited (In liquidation) and USG Interiors Pacific Limited
If your business wants both settlement certainty and an appellate ruling, do not assume you can safely settle first and appeal later. This case shows that once a...
Commerce Commission v Fonterra Cooperative Group Ltd
For ordinary businesses, the practical lesson is not about dairy valuation theory. It is about how regulated pricing and supply obligations work in real life. If...
Peterson Portable Sawing Systems Limited In Liquidation and Anor v Lucas and Anor
For business owners, the durable lesson is not about sawmills as such. It is about how fragile an intellectual property position can be if the legal claim is wider...