In 1978, an incorporated society known as the Grand Society, initially established for the benefit of all Lebanese living in New Zealand, was struck off the register for failing to file updated financial accounts. Nearly half a century on, three different Lebanese groups claim ownership of the Grand Society’s land in central Wellington.
The site at 128 Abel Smith Street is now bare land after fire gutted the two-storey wooden building. Online reports following the 2020 fire described the century old building as being previously used as a dwelling, private hospital, society headquarters and more recently as a community centre and hot-spot of political activism.
Since the Grand Society no longer exists, who owns the site was fiercely disputed in the High Court.
Evidence was given that Abel Smith Street was purchased in 1959 by the Grand Society following sale of its then property on Cambridge Terrace. Funding for the earlier Cambridge Terrace purchase came from a mix of donations and loans drawn from members of the Lebanese community and the accumulated funds of Grand Society branches in Auckland, Hawkes Bay, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.
After the Grand Society was struck off, members of the Wellington Lebanese community assumed responsibility for rates and maintenance of Abel Smith Street. Over time they came to assume all rights of ownership. Downstream legal issues following the 2020 fire required ownership to be regularised.
After earlier unsuccessful attempts by the Wellington Lebanese community to have the Grand Society reinstated to the register, they established a new incorporated society in 1991: the Lebanese Society of New Zealand.
In 2023, the Registrar of Incorporated Societies directed that ownership of the Grand Society’s land now lay with Wellington-based Lebanese Society of New Zealand.
A firestorm followed. Separate ethnic Lebanese incorporated societies in both Auckland and Dunedin sued.
They claimed to be successor groups of the former Auckland and Dunedin branches of the Grand Society and as branches they had contributed to funding ultimately used to purchase Abel Smith Street.
The Registrar of Incorporated Societies told the High Court she was unaware of these competing interests at time ownership was passed to the Wellington based group. The High Court was invited to reconsider rights of ownership.
Justice Churchman ruled all three groups were entitled to share in ownership of the Wellington property. Share entitlements could not be determined because there were no existing records identifying the amount of funding coming from each region for the original Cambridge Terrace purchase.
Auckland and Dunedin were particularly angry that Wellington was now enjoying full ownership of Abel Smith Street when back in 1950 Wellington had demanded repayment by the Grand Society of its four hundred pound Cambridge Terrace contribution, and was repaid.
With the warring groups unable to agree with Justice Churchman’s suggestion that a new society representing all Lebanese in New Zealand be incorporated to hold title to Abel Smith Street, he ordered the property be sold and the proceeds split equally three ways between Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin.
Given the animosity and mutual distrust between Wellington and the other two claimants, he ruled the Registrar of Incorporated Societies is to manage the sale and distribution.
Lebanese Society of Aotearoa New Zealand Inc v. Lebanese Society of New Zealand – High Court (25.07.24)
24.179