Four decades after their father died, Rosalie and Helen Yozin were in the High Court attempting to force a transfer to them of prime subdividable land in Swanson, west Auckland, as their share of Milan Yozin’s estate. The High Court refused. Disputes over valuation threatened equity as between all beneficiaries.
The estate’s sole asset is a four-hectare block of land with good road frontage on only two sides. It has been in the family since 1937; used first for dairying, then as a market garden and orchard, later as a vineyard. Disposal of the land became an issue on the death of Milan Yozin’s widow in 2014, then aged in her nineties. Their four children are the beneficiaries.
Rosalie and Helen want part of the land transferred to them in satisfaction of their fifty per cent share of the estate. Their siblings object. Each square metre of land is not of equal value, they said. They would be left with land having more difficult access and less value.
Rosalie and Helen took a lateral approach. They argued in the High Court that the Law Reform (Testamentary Promises) Act entitled them to the land they wanted. Justice Peters ruled they did not satisfy the precise criteria required in the Act: the work they did around the property in their youth was no more than that expected within local families, harvesting and packing fruit; there was no evidence their father made promises of land beyond usual parental exhortations of ‘work hard, someday all this will be yours’; and their claim to the land well exceeded in value any benefit they had provided to their parents’ business activities.
Rosalie and Helen also asked the court to order estate executor NZ Guardian Trust exercise its discretion under the Trustee Act to partition the land as they requested. Justice Peters said the two have no direct interest in the land itself sufficient to seek partition; their interest as set out in Milan Yozin’s will is in the net proceeds of any sale of the land. It is for NZ Guardian Trust to determine the best way of achieving the best price. That can include partitioning the land as agreed by the four beneficiaries, provided all four can reach agreement. NZ Guardian Trust became executor of Milan’s estate after a family friend appointed executor resigned amidst all the family infighting.
Yozin v. NZ Guardian Trust Ltd – High Court (12.06.18)
18.122