Cite decisions of the Māori Land Court and the Māori Appellate Court as follows:

Eg Pacey v Adlam – Matata Parish 39A 2B 2B 2A (2017) 178 Waiariki MB 32 (178 WAR 32).

Eg Faulkner v Hoete – Motiti North C No 1 [2018] Māori Appellate Court MB 17 (2018 APPEAL 17).

Since 2010, all decisions of the Māori Land Court and Māori Appellate Court are organised within the following minute books. These include individual minute books for the seven Māori Land Court districts, the Māori Appellate Court minute book and the Chief Judge’s minute book.

The Māori Appellate Court minute books (post-2010) and the Chief Judge’s minute books are organised by year rather than by volume number. Therefore, give the year in square brackets.

Eg McCallum v The Māori Trustee – Estate of Ngapiki Waaka Hakaraia [2017] Chief Judge’s MB 144 (2017 CJ 144).

Eg Reihana v Benedito – Punakitere 4J2B2B [2018]Māori Appellate Court MB 32 (2018 APPEAL 32).

(a) Contested cases

(a) Punctuation

Separate the case name and block name by an en dash (–). The keyboard shortcut for an en dash on Windows computers is “Ctrl + -” (where “-” is the minus symbol) and on Apple computers “Option + -” (where “-” is the hyphen symbol).

(b) Block name

Give the block name in addition to the parties’ names. Historically, some decisions of the Māori Land Court and Māori Appellate Court were only referred to by block names and not by the parties’ names.

Eg Nicholls v Nicholls – Koromatua 3A (2017) 154 Waikato Maniapoto MB 128 (154 WMN 128).

(c) Applications involving succession

Cases of this nature do not usually involve a specific block of land. Instead they relate to the distribution of a deceased’s estate and therefore succession to interests in a number of blocks. They may be contested or uncontested. Cite these applications as:

Eg Martin – Estate of Jackie Te Ratu Tio (2013) 305 Aotea MB 1 (305 AOT 1).

Eg Rewha v Clarke – Estate of Tamehana Rewha (2017) 163 Taitokerau MB 164 (163 TTK 164).

(d) Applications with no “subject matter”

Some applications filed with the Court will not address a specific subject matter. Applications of this nature are usually filed pursuant to ss 29–30 of Te Ture Whenua Māori Act 1993 and should be cited in the same manner as contested cases, but without reference to a subject matter.

Eg Manuirirangi v Nga Hapu o Nga Ruahine Iwi Inc [2010] Chief Judge’s MB 355 (2010 CJ 355).

Eg Wano v Ngāti Hineuru Iwi Inc (2013) 24 Tākitimu MB 56 (24 TKT 56).

For Māori Appellate Court decisions prior to 2010 and all Māori Land Court decisions give the year of the judgment in round brackets following the block name.

Since 2010, decisions of the Māori Appellate Court have been organised by year rather than by district and accordingly the year of the judgment should be in square brackets.

For decisions from the Chief Judge’s minute book, the year of the judgment should be in square brackets.

(a) General rule

The minute book reference follows the year of judgment. For all Māori Land Court decisions, the minute book reference consists of the minute book volume number, the full title of the minute book and the folio number. References to the Māori Appellate Court minute books and Chief Judge’s minute books follow the same format except that they do not have a volume number.

Eg Goldsmith – Lot 72B 3G2 Parish of Matata (2017) 175 Waiariki MB 99 (175 WAR 99).

Eg Keepa v Vercoe – Ruatoki B92 [2015] Māori Appellate Court MB 189 (2015 APPEAL 189).

(b) Do not abbreviate

Include the full title of the minute book but abbreviate “Minute Book” to “MB”.

(a) General rule

The minute book citation in round brackets follows the full minute book reference.

Eg Matchitt – Parekura Hei Road, Part Te Kaha Block (2004) 10 Waiariki Appellate MB 253 (10 AP 253).

Eg Matchitt v Butler – Matangareka 3B (2017) 177 Waiariki MB 170 (177 WAR 170).

Citations to the Māori Appellate Court minute books and Chief Judge’s minute books include the year of the judgment in place of a volume number.

Eg Tito v Tito – Mangakahia 2B2 No 2A1A [2017] Māori Appellate Court MB 336 (2017 APPEAL 336).

(b) Background

Incorporating the full wording of the minute book (for example Rotorua Appellate MB) as well as the citation (10 APRO 32) will assist Māori Land Court staff to find the case being cited. This remains important as in some instances judgments are only available from the Māori Land Court.

In addition, it is necessary to have the minute book reference citation as there are currently many different Māori Land Court minute books and different abbreviations. For example, to simply put “Chief Judge’s MB” could lead the user to a number of different minute books. There are various Chief Judges’ books, with various abbreviations such as CJ, CJTK, CJTA, WHCJ, CJTW, CJWM and CJW.