Plain language law

New Zealand law explained for everyone

Trusts Act 2019

Court powers and dispute resolution

134: Protection of trustee while acting under direction of court

You could also call this:

"Trustees are protected if they follow a court's instructions, as long as they act honestly."

Illustration for Trusts Act 2019

If you are a trustee and a court tells you what to do, you are protected. You will be seen as doing your job properly if you follow the court's direction. This is true even if the court's order is later found to be wrong.

However, if you act in bad faith when getting or following the court's direction, you are not protected. This means that if you do something wrong on purpose when asking for or agreeing with the court's direction, you can still get in trouble. You can find more information about this by looking at the Trustee Act 1956.

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 It might be out of date or be missing some parts.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=DLM7383061.

Topics:
Money and consumer rights > Banking and loans
Previous

133: Trustee may apply to court for directions, or

"Trustees can ask a court for help making decisions about trust property"

Next

135: Trustee may apply to court to bar claims, or

"A trustee can ask a court to stop someone from making a claim against trust property."

Part 7Court powers and dispute resolution

134Protection of trustee while acting under direction of court

  1. A trustee acting under any direction of the court must be treated as having discharged the trustee’s duties as a trustee in relation to the direction, even though the order giving the direction is later declared invalid, overruled, set aside, or found to be otherwise ineffective.

  2. However, subsection (1) does not indemnify a trustee for any act done in accordance with a direction of the court if the trustee has acted in bad faith in—

  3. getting the direction; or
    1. acquiescing in the court making the order or giving the direction.

      Compare