A v M - [1991] 3 NZLR 228

Tort — Cause of action — Assault and battery — Sexual assault — Rape — Marital exemption — Husband raped wife after the repeal of the Crimes Act 1961, s 128 - Whether the repeal revived a husband's common law protection from prosecution by his wife for rape — Whether the common law protection existed.

Damages — Exemplary — Assault and battery — Husband assaulted wife over a period of months — Husband raped wife during two of the assaults — Whether rape was a wrongful act of such a kind or accompanied by such circumstances that compensatory damages were inadequate to punish the wrongdoer or to deter him from repetition of the wrongful conduct in question — Whether assaults on various occasions during a marriage were grave incidents of such a kind as to attract exemplary damages.

Damages — Exemplary — Assault and battery — Sexual assault — Rape — Observations on circumstances of aggravation that would make the act of rape an insult of a more grievous kind — Observations on the necessity of leaving proper provision for an appropriate award of damages for a case that merited a higher amount.