Exception not the Rule: Adjournment for Prospective Legislation
Exception not the Rule: Adjournment for Prospective Legislation
Wednesday 28 May, 2025
It is rare for a court to consider prospective legislation when deciding whether to adjourn a hearing, and even rarer for a court to adjourn a hearing until prospective legislation is enacted. However, whilst rare, it is not completely out of the question, as seen in the recent decision of Transpower New Zealand Ltd v Southland Regional Council (view here).
Background
This case concerned a number of appeals in relation to rule 24 of the Proposed Southland Water and Land Plan which permits incidental discharges from farming onto, or into, land in certain circumstances. The issue raised in the appeals was whether proposed rule 24 complies with section 70 of the Resource Management Act 1991, which regulates regional rules regarding discharges.
Following an interim decision on the interpretation of section 70 late last year (view here), the Resource Management (Consenting and Other System Changes) Amendment Bill 2024 (the Amendment Bill) was introduced which proposed amendments to section 70. Southland Regional Council therefore applied to the Court to stay the appeal proceedings relating to proposed rule 24 until after the Amendment Bill is passed.
Decision
In determining whether to adjourn proceedings, the Environment Court noted that, in rare cases, regard may be had to prospective legislation. The Court was also satisfied that this was one such ‘rare’ case where it was in the interests of justice that the pending legislation lead to an adjournment of the proceedings as:
- the course of the proceedings and the evidence that the parties would need to prepare under current and proposed versions of section 70 differs significantly;
- the proposed amendment to section 70 was “imminent” as the Amendment Bill was before the Select Committee and likely to become law in a matter of months;
- no hearing date had been set for the appeals and no evidence timetable was yet in place;
- it would be highly disruptive if the passing of the Amendment Bill intersected with the appeal proceedings in terms of case management, the evidence timetable or the hearing itself; and
- adjourning the proceedings until the Amendment Bill was passed was not likely to delay the resolution of the appeals.
Therefore, the Court granted the adjournment as requested.
Exception to the rule
Adjourning proceedings on the basis of prospective legislation is extremely rare in the Environment Court. This case illustrates an example of the type of ‘rare’ circumstances which might give rise to the exception to this rule. It will be interesting to see whether the Environment Court sees any applications to stay proceedings when the new bills replacing the Resource Management Act are introduced later this year.
If you have any questions or would like to seek advice in relation to an adjournment or similar issue, our team is happy to provide assistance – you can get in touch with one of our experts below.
Our thanks to Law Clerk Lauren Aplin for her contribution to this article.
