A legal battle over architect Fred van Brandenburg's purchase of a $1.4 million section in the Millbrook West luxury residential development near Arrowtown has ended this week with the High Court ruling he must pay.
The ruling said Mr van Brandenburg in 2006 signed a purchase contract for a site in the development, situated near Arrowtown, but in 2009 moved to cancel the purchase agreement, sparking action in the High Court at Invercargill in April last year.
The High Court ruling, of which Millbrook Country Club was the plaintiff, was released on Wednesday, with Mr van Brandenburg ordered to pay the original price as well as late settlement interest.
When contacted by the Otago Daily Times yesterday, Millbrook property and development manager Ben O'Malley said the biggest cost to Millbrook would come from the penalty interest, estimating that the 15% per annum charged on the site had accrued to about $450,000 since the settlement date, in addition to the $1.4 million price tag.
Mr van Brandenburg declined to comment on the ruling.
Titles were issued for lots in the subdivision in 2008, by which time Mr van Brandenburg had sought various landscape alterations with mounding earthworks and ponds on his site.
However, after failing to pay by the settlement date of February 16, 2009, his lawyers gave notice of cancellation of the agreement, stating Millbrook was in breach of a contractual clause.
Mr O'Malley said the van Brandenburgs were not happy with the ponds and mounds in the Millbrook plans by the time the settlement date had arrived.
In a decision, Associate Judge Robert Osborne ruled that Mr van Brandenburg must settle the expense.
He found the defendant's proposition that an implied term of agreement existed between the parties, giving a right of cancellation "if the parties did not reach agreement on the final design" was "without merit".
The Millbrook West development is in stage one of four, with a total of 350 residential sites planned for the entire Millbrook resort.
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