Judgment summary - judicial review - Michalik v Earthquake Commission (EGC)

2014] NZHC 2238

This decision is not an "earthquake judgment", but will have implications for a number of earthquake claims.

The facts

Mr Michalik owns a residential property in Highbury, Wellington. It suffered a small landslip following a significant rainfall in July 2012, and a small retaining wall collapsed.

It is common ground that the existing retaining wall was neither reinforced nor drained, and did not comply with modern Building Act 2004 requirements. The replacement of the existing retaining wall with a wall that complies with relevant regulatory requirements would result in a replacement wall that was not only new, but substantially better than its predecessor.