High Court Justice Christine French has ordered Arcadia Homes Ltd, a company operated by lawyer Andrew Guest, to pay Andrew Clark $1,016,576.11, including costs and disbursements of $42,809.45.
But Arcadia Homes went into liquidation almost three weeks ago, shortly after Justice French made her decision.
Approached for comment yesterday, Mr Clark said he had wanted to take the matter to court to stop the same thing happening to others and was still pleased he had.
"Contracts are contracts.
There's no point in having contracts if people aren't going to stick by them."
Ultimate Lifestyle Trust, of which Mr Clark is the trustee, put a holiday house in Waimana Pl, Wanaka, on the market in 2007, and believed it had been sold to Arcadia Homes in December that year for $2 million.
Mr Guest, of Auckland, pulled out of the deal in January 2008, saying the purchase had not been approved by the directors of Arcadia Homes.
Justice French found Mr Guest was the sole director of Arcadia Homes and the December sale and purchase contract was legally binding.
Mr Clark's trust sold the house almost a year later for $1.41 million, a loss of $590,000.
The judgement showed property buyers "can't just put in words" in a contract to enable them to walk away, Mr Clark said.
He said he had taken the matter to court because he feared others would be taken advantage of by a similar process.
"We battled it out this long to get justice and to stop it happening to someone else."
Mr Clark declined to say how much the court case had cost him.
A search of the company register yesterday revealed Arcadia Homes Ltd went into liquidation on April 2, and had no assets.
Asked whether he expected to see any of the money from the judgement, Mr Clark said he would "see what happens".
"The liquidation process is under way. It wasn't really all about the money."
Arcadia is appealing the judge's decision.
Mr Guest is the brother of Michael Guest, of Dunedin, a former lawyer, judge and Dunedin city councillor.
