Introductory Topics in Business Law and Practice in New Zealand

Introductory Topics in Business Law and Practice in New Zealand is written for students studying for the New Zealand Law Society Legal Executive Diploma. The text will also be of interest to law students and legal executives generally as well as to lawyers, registered conveyancers, and real estate agents. Now fully revised and updated, this edition provides an introduction to leases; agreements for sale and purchase of a business; the Personal Property Securities Act 1999; consumer law; company law; insurance; and guarantees.

  1 Introduction

Part A : General law applicable to business
  2 The law of contracts and the world of business – a brief introduction
  3 Transfer of ownership of goods
  4 Transfer of risk of goods
  5 Securities over personal property
   The Personal Property Securities Act 1999 [“PPSA”]
  6 Guarantees
  7 Insurance

Part B : Commercial leases

  8 Introduction to leases
  9 Terms and covenants in leases
10 Key statutory provisions affecting leases
11 Drafting leases
12 Assignments of leases
13 Drafting Deeds of Assignment of Leases
The ADLS Deed of Assignment of Lease form
14 Subleases
15 Comparing assignments and subleases
16 Guarantees of leases
17 Procedures re leases

Part C : Agreements for sale and purchase of a business

18 Introduction to agreements for sale and purchase of a business
19 Options for a purchaser of a business
20 The ADLS business agreement
21 The roles of solicitors (and others) in agreements for sale and purchase of a business
22 Drafting the ADLS business agreement

Part D : Legislative intervention

23 Introduction to Part D
24 Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act 2003
25 Consumer Guarantees Act 1993
26 Fair Trading Act 1986

Part E : Introduction to company law

27 Company law terms and concepts
28 The “birth” of a company
29 The name of a company
30 Use of the company structure for a small business
31 Financial Reporting Act 1993
32 Mandatory, presumptive, and permissive provisions of the Companies Act 1993
33 Company constitutions
34 Shareholders
35 Directors
36 Meetings and resolutions in lieu of meetings
37 Drafting of company resolutions
38 Major transactions
39 Execution of company documents
40 Some common company procedures
41 Disclosure of directors’ interests
42 Service of documents on a company
43 Statutory demands
44 Removal of a company from the Register of Companies

Table of cases
Table of statutes
Index
About the author

Gordon Churchill is a lecturer in law in the Faculty of Business and Information Technology at the Porirua and Wellington Campuses of Whitireia Community Polytechnic.

Born and raised in Wellington, he attended Ridgway School, South Wellington Intermediate, and Wellington College. In the early 1970’s he graduated from Victoria University of Wellington with LL.B (Hons) and LL.M (with Distinction). In the same period he was admitted as a Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand (then called the “Supreme Court”).

After working as a staff solicitor in a medium size law firm in Wellington, he became a partner in a two-person firm at the end of 1978. From then until April 1998 he practised as a solicitor doing conveyancing work in Wellington. At the beginning of 1999 he commenced work as a law lecturer at Wellington Polytechnic, which soon became the Wellington Campus of Massey University. At the beginning of 2006 the Legal Executive Course (as it was then called) moved from Massey University at Wellington to Whitireia Community Polytechnic and Gordon moved with it. He is currently Programme Manager at Whitireia for the New Zealand Law Society Legal Executive Diploma.

Gordon has taught on most of the papers for the New Zealand Law Society Legal Executive Diploma and has also taught law to business students at various levels. In 2000 he was the consultant for the First Edition of the Conveyancing Law Handbook published by CCH New Zealand Limited. His professional development as a lecturer has included achieving an Advanced Certificate in Tertiary Teaching from Massey University.