Supreme Court case information
Listed below are the substantive Supreme Court cases for the year along with appeals still to be determined or cases awaiting hearing.
Information giving an overview of the case is included along with media releases and links to judgments being appealed when available.
All 2024 - 2014 Supreme Court cases dismissed or deemed to be dismissed where a notice of abandonment was received can be found here.
Transcripts for cases heard before the Supreme Court are included provided they are not suppressed. Transcripts from pre-trial hearings are not published until the final disposition of trial. These are unedited transcripts and they are not a formal record of the Court’s proceedings. The Ministry of Justice does not accept responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of any material and recommends that users exercise their own skill and care with respect to its use.
28 November 2025
Case information summary 2025 (as at 28 November 2025) – Cases where leave granted (PDF, 87 KB)
Case information summary 2025 (as at 28 November 2025) – Cases where leave to appeal decision not yet made (PDF, 120 KB)
All years
Case name
Jay Maui Wallace v The Queen
Case number
SC 99/2011
Summary
Criminal – Appeal against conviction and sentence – Whether trial was conducted unfairly resulting in a miscarriage of justice – Whether the High Court had jurisdiction to convict – Whether bail should be granted pending determination of the appeal. [2011] NZCA 424 CA 471/2011
Dates
Application for leave to appeal dismissed.
18 October 2011.
18 October 2011.
Case name
SNC v The Queen
Case number
SC 101/2011
Summary
Criminal Appeal – Evidence Act 2006 – Admissibility of evidence “improperly obtained” by police pursuant to a warrantless search – whether the Court of Appeal erred in upholding the District Court Judge’ s decision to admit the evidence in exercise of the balancing test required by subs 30(2) of the Act – whether the Court of Appeal failed to give sufficient weight to and/or erred in its assessment of the listed factors in paras 30(3)(a), (b) and (d) of the Act – whether the Court of Appeal gave too much weight to the importance of the evidence to the case of the prosecution[2011] NZCA 402 CA 191/2010
Dates
Application for leave to appeal dismissed.
18 October 2011.
18 October 2011.
Case name
W v The Queen
Case number
SC 117/2011
Summary
Criminal Appeal – Counsel error – Whether the Court of Appeal erred in concluding that trial counsel’s advice to the applicant not to give or call evidence was reasonably open to him in the circumstances – Whether or not the Court of Appeal adequately addressed the applicant’ s claim that acceptance of trial counsel’s advice not to give evidence was based on a fundamental misunderstanding of that part of his advice which was intended to inform the applicant of the advantages of giving evidence – Whether the Court of Appeal omitted or misstated evidence supporting the applicant’s allegations on appeal that the trial counsel gave advice in a manner that usurped the applicant’s right to make elections about evidence, impacting on the credibility of the decisions made by the Court of Appeal – Whether the Court of Appeal’s decision that the result of the applicant’s trial could not possibly have been affected if the applicant or any other of the applicant’s witnesses had given evidence was available to it on the evidence.[2011] NZCA 529 CA 702/2010
Leave judgment - leave dismissed
W v R SC 117/2011 [13 February 2012] (PDF, 42 KB)
Case name
Ricky Tamati v The Queen
Case number
SC 119/2011
Summary
Criminal – Evidence Act 2006 – jury direction – appeal against conviction on four representative charges of sexual violation and one of indecent assault – primary focus at trial had been the reliability of the evidence of the complainant who had suffered brain injury at a young age – whether the trial Judge erred in failing to warn the jury, as is permitted under s 122(1) of the Act if of the opinion that evidence admitted “may nevertheless be unreliable”, of the need for caution in deciding whether to accept the evidence of the complainant and the weight to be given to that evidence – if so, whether the failure to give a warning to the jury led to a miscarriage of justice[2010] NZCA 49 CA 440/2009
Leave judgment - leave dismissed
Dates
Application for leave to appeal dismissed.
13 December 2011.
13 December 2011.
Case name
Michael Andrew Keith Hastie v The Queen
Case number
SC 120/2011
Summary
Criminal Appeal – Whether the trial Judge should have given a Papadopoulos direction.[2011] NZCA 498 CA 153/2011
Result
The application for leave to appeal is granted.
The approved grounds of appeal are whether the directions given to the jury before it delivered its verdicts were appropriate and, if not, whether this gave rise to a substantial miscarriage of justice?
9 February 2012
_______________________
Appeal dismissed.
23 July 2012
Transcript
Elias CJ, Tipping, McGrath, William Young, Chambers JJ
Case name
Mark Terence Pearson v The Queen
Case number
SC 125/2011
Summary
Criminal Appeal – Section 76 of the Evidence Act 2006 – Illegitimate reasoning by jury – That the Court of Appeal was wrong to decline to interview one of the jury members at the appellant’s trial – That the application should be heard out of time. [2011] NZCA 572 CA 411/2011
Dates
Application for leave to appeal dismissed.
27 April 2012.
27 April 2012.
Case name
Ross Nathan v The Queen
Case number
SC 126/2011
Summary
Criminal Appeal – Attempt to adduce fresh evidence – Whether evidence of the complainant allegedly being in a sexual relationship at the time that the offence was committed was relevant to the complainant’ s reliability and credibility – Whether failure to adduce that evidence resulted in a substantial miscarriage of justice.[2011] NZCA 578 CA 318/2011
Dates
Hearing
Case name
Ricardo Aryan v The Queen
Case number
SC 128/2011
Summary
Criminal Appeal – Appeal against the decision of the Court of Appeal, which dismissed the applicant’s appeal against conviction – Whether conviction should be appealed because of fresh evidence.[2010] NZCA 57 CA 614/2009
Dates
Application for leave to appeal dismissed.
13 March 2012.
13 March 2012.
Case name
Jacqueline Elaine Wihongi v The Queen
Case number
SC 130/2011
Summary
Criminal Appeal – Sentencing – Sentencing Act 2002, s 102 – appeal against the Court of Appeal’s decision to raise the Applicant’ s sentence from 8 years to 12 years – whether the Court of Appeal erred in its assessment of the Applicant’s future risk of violent offending – whether the Court of Appeal erred in finding that a longer finite sentence would increase the level of public safety – whether the Court of Appeal erred in its consideration of the Applicant’s mental impairments – whether the Court of Appeal erred in its consideration of the Applicant’ s favourable qualities – whether the application should be heard even though it was filed out of time.[2011] NZCA 592 CA 641/2010
Dates
Application for leave to appeal dismissed.
6 March 2012.
6 March 2012.
Case name
Pawel Marian Misiuk v The Queen
Case number
SC 133/2011
Summary
Criminal Appeal – New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990, s 24(d) – Appeal against the decision of the Court of Appeal, which dismissed the applicant’s appeal against conviction and sentence – Whether there was a breach of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990, s 24(d) – Applicant claims not to have access to files and computer facilities[2011] NZCA 663 CA 307/2011
Hearing
Application for leave to appeal dismissed.
21 June 2012.
21 June 2012.
Dates
Application for recall dismissed.
5 April 2012.
5 April 2012.
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