Bitterly-fought
litigation over the late Hugh Green’s valuable estate has been settled with a
court approved division of the spoils separating the interests of daughter
Maryanne from other family members, avoiding what was described as the
certainty of a destructive and expensive family feud.
Control over assets
measured in hundreds of millions dollars has been split with Maryanne taking a
24 per cent stake. This negotiated
divorce followed a 2015 High Court hearing in which Hugh Green’s last will was
invalidated because of undue influence by his son John. This will would have had the effect of giving
John control of his late father’s business empire and ousting Maryanne from previous
management control. Court appointed
trustees took control of trusts set up by Hugh Green. Behind the scenes, lawyers crafted a
resettlement of trust assets egged on by a Court of Appeal warning against
wasteful and destructive litigation. The
exact extent of the Green legacy is unknown.
Hugh Green amassed substantial landholdings in and around Auckland. Values disclosed in court filings are
supressed.
In the High Court,
Justice Muir approved a resettlement of assets with 24 per cent by value of
combined assets in the Hugh Green Trust and Hugh Green Property Trust transferred
to two new trusts: approximately 40 per cent of these assets going into a
charitable trust called the Hugo Charitable Trust recently registered by
Maryanne with the Charities Commission and the balance into a family trust
benefitting Maryanne and her descendants.
Her siblings John and Frances retain an interest in the balance of the
Hugh Green and Hugh Green Property Trusts, with Maryanne and her descendants
having no claim over these remaining assets.
Court approval was
required because the Green trusts include as classes of beneficiary children and
further children yet to be born. The
court-approved settlement also ended all litigation over the validity of Hugh
Green’s wills.
Green
v. Green – High Court (19.05.17)
17.046