Falkner v Gisborne District Council - [1995] 3 NZLR 622

Property law — Coastal erosion — Common law right of owners to protect property from encroachment by the sea — Common law duty on the Crown to protect the realm — Whether such right and duty apply in New Zealand — Whether such right and duty modified or abrogated by statute — English Laws Act 1908 — Imperial Laws Application Act 1988.

Property law — Coastal erosion — Common law right of owners to protect property from encroachment by the sea — Common law duty on the Crown to protect the realm — Whether such right and duty absolute and enforceable — Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Act 1941, s 10 — Crown Proceedings Act 1950, ss 3 and 6.

Resource management — Requirement for resource consent — Frontagers wishing to construct works to protect properties from encroachment by the sea — Whether entitled to do so in reliance on common law rights — Whether right subject to regime of Resource Management Act 1991 — Resource Management Act 1991, s 23

Property law — Erosion — Policy of managed retreat of residential occupation in the face of encroachment by the sea — No provision for compensation to affected owners — Whether amounts to unreasonable seizure of property — New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990, s 21.

Statutes — Interpretation — Whether statute intended to take away legal rights — Whether sufficient that language be clear and unambiguous.