Plain language law

New Zealand law explained for everyone

Contract and Commercial Law Act 2017

Contracts legislation - Contractual remedies - Provisions purporting to prevent court inquiry

51: Authority for making or giving statement, promise, or undertaking

You could also call this:

“Courts can check if someone had permission to make promises for others, even if a contract says they can't”

This law is about what happens when a contract or document tries to stop a court from looking into whether someone had the right to make a promise or statement for another person.

You might see a contract that says the court can’t check if the person making a promise was allowed to do so. But this law says that’s not true. The court can still look into it, no matter what the contract says.

Even if the contract tries to stop the court from asking questions, the court is still allowed to ask those questions and figure out if the person really had permission to make promises for someone else.

This text is automatically generated. It might be out of date or be missing some parts. Find out more about how we do this.

This page was last updated on

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM6844124.

Topics:
Business > Fair trading Money and consumer rights > Consumer protection
Previous

50: Statement, promise, or undertaking during negotiations, or

"What someone says or promises before making a deal can still matter"

Next

52: Contracts for sale of goods, or

"Rules to protect you when buying things"

Part 2 Contracts legislation
Contractual remedies: Provisions purporting to prevent court inquiry

51Authority for making or giving statement, promise, or undertaking

  1. This section applies if a contract, or any other document, contains a provision purporting to prevent a court from inquiring into or determining the question of whether, in respect of any statement, promise, or undertaking made or given by any person, that person had the actual or ostensible authority of a party to make or give it.

  2. The court is not, in any proceeding in relation to the contract, prevented by the provision from inquiring into and determining the question.

Compare