An industry-wide problem of widespread theft of both bees and honey surfaced in litigation between Te Tumu Miere Ltd, owned by the Maori Trustee, and apiarist Zelande Ltd. Zealande refuses to hand over hives until paid its management costs.
Having oversight of some 100,000 hectares of Maori-owned land, the Maori Trustee set up Te Tumu Miere Ltd as a service company to link owners of Maori land with the honey industry, helping Maori generate income through honey collected from their land. The project was not a commercial success. Te Tumu is in liquidation. The liquidators’ initial report states that Te Tumu directors blame its failure on unsustainable losses and an ‘incorrigible management contract’.
In the High Court, Te Tumu sued Auckland-based apiarist Zealande Ltd demanding possession of 1500 hives purchased from Zelande. Zealande claims a lien over the hives for unpaid management fees. Te Tumu does not know where the hives are located. Evidence was given that hive location is a carefully guarded commercial secret. With hives commonly situated in remote rural areas, theft is rife. Within the industry, employee poaching is commonplace. A new employee brings not only industry skills, but also knowledge of competitor’s hive locations.
Zelande’s management contract with Te Tumu was due to run until 2022. Zealande says it cancelled its management contract with effect from September 2018. Te Tumu liquidators want possession of the hives to be on-sold as a company asset; Zealande says biosecurity legislation requires oversight of the hives by qualified staff, which it offered to provide at a fee of over $100,000 until handover in late April at the end of the season.
Justice Jagose refused Te Tumu’s request for a third party to assume management of the hives. Te Tumu was lax in taking steps to get possession, he said. There is nothing unjust in Zealande demanding payment for management costs; it was left to manage the hives by default when the relationship with Te Tumu broke down.
As a last-minute compromise, Te Tumu offered to pay into court the fees demanded by Zelande provided Zelande delivered the hives to an agreed site within six weeks. The two warring parties need to work out the mechanics of such an arrangement if they want it incorporated into a court order, Justice Jagose said.
Te Tumu Miere Ltd (in liquidation) v. Zealande Ltd – High Court (4.01.19)
19.031