Associate Judge Dale Lester said Andrew McIntosh’s actions after settling an agreement to buy two sections in the Forestlines Rise subdivision from a Cyprus-based businessman in 2021 were "at best, opportunistic".
In his decision, which follows a hearing in the High Court at Invercargill last month, Associate Judge Lester said Lev Papoyan agreed to sell the land to McIntosh’s company B Property Group for $5.5 million.
Mr Papoyan, who had a dwelling built from two shipping containers on one of the sections, excluded it from the sale as he had an agreement to remove it and sell it to a third party for $100,000.
However, after the land sale was settled in mid-2022, McIntosh refused Mr Papoyan access to the land to remove it.
Mr Papoyan applied to the court for orders enabling him to recover the building, and damages for the opportunity he had lost to complete its sale.
Associate Judge Lester said emails between McIntosh and Mr Papoyan’s real estate agent in 2021, before the land sale was signed, made it clear "beyond any doubt" McIntosh knew the building was not part of the deal.
In October 2021, the agent told McIntosh: "the container is 100% not for sale ... it has never been associated with the sale and has never been mentioned as so".
McIntosh abandoned his defence during the trial that he had been misled by the agent, and his position otherwise was "wholly without merit", the judge said.
Denying Mr Papoyan access to the property so he could recover the building was a "deliberate flouting of the clear and unambiguous agreement that the [building] was not included in the sale".
Associate Judge Lester ordered McIntosh to pay punitive damages of $5000, and further damages in the form of interest on the sum of $100,000 for the period McIntosh had unlawfully possessed the building.
He must also pay Mr Papoyan’s litigation costs.
The proceedings would not be dismissed until Mr Papoyan had recovered the building, "lest there be some attempt to frustrate that relief".
The Otago Daily Times has previously reported on McIntosh’s long-running legal dispute with Singapore businessman Kurt Wagner over the latter’s $10 million investment in B Property Group’s stalled Kitea Hotel development in Wanaka’s town centre.
The pair subsequently reached a confidential settlement over the matter.
In July, the Environment Court granted consent to another McIntosh company for a proposal to build a 20-villa luxury lodge complex at Queenstown’s Bob’s Cove.
Construction has yet to start.
