Symptoms of neglect: Trust claims under the Limitation Act 2010

New Zealand's limitation legislation was overhauled with the enacting of the Limitation Act 2010. Despite this comprehensive reform, the way in which trust claims are best to be addressed appears to have been largely overlooked in the reform process. Consequently, the multitude of historic issues that have plagued statutory provisions dealing with trust claims endure in the 2010 Act, with the few changes to the structure of drafting compounding these problems. This paper explores the policy considerations at work, and, by way of example, undertakes a thorough analysis of the exception for fraudulent breaches of trust in light of these policy considerations to illustrate some of the new problems that are bound to arise in practice. Given the numerous and significant difficulties, and the substantial implications for parties seeking to rely on these provisions, this paper argues that a broad reconsideration of the way in which trust claims are dealt with in the 2010 Act is urgently needed.