Ann: SML Announcement - Supreme Court Update, page-87

Those are merely statements of opiniins, which literally means nothing.

The true fact is that:

The covenant only covers a minority inside part of Synlait's land with the majority that remains being the unburdened portion.

The actual site of Synlait's plant are built on both the burdened and unburdened portions of the land. With a significant portion on the unburdened land.

Logically then:

The covenant thus no longer offers any significant protection because any that the covenant offers are effectively entirely negated by the unburdened portion of Synlait's land.

It is that simple.

Qing Ye's/NZIPL's argument is that Synlait's site MIGHT make things difficult for them IF they want to build a quarry because:

1. Synlait may oppose the development of the quarry
2. Synlait's site may be sensitive to quarrying activity and that may influence the outcome of a potential resource consent.

Logic states, however, that Synlait reserves the right to those two points regardless of the covenant.

So the covenant is effectively moot and irrelevant, which was what the high court ruled. The subsequent court of appeal, I think, was fatally flawed in that they:

1. Narrowly considered only the right of the minority burdened land and failed to take into account at all, the right of the majority unburdened land.
2. Based their decision of incomplete information on building site offered by NZIPL.

All in all, it is irrelevant whether the covenant stays or get removed.

I think,

If the covenant is removed, then there MIGHT be some amount payable to NZIPL but even that is not guaranteed because of how weak NZIPL's case is and any amount would be covered by Stonehill and not Synlait. So the effect on Synlait would be zero.

If the covenant is not removed then there is no chance for any indemnity charges and Synlait's operation would go on normally, unhindered.

Synlait's operation would go on unhindered, regardless whether the supreme court would accept the case or not. So what is so tick tock about it?