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New Zealand law explained for everyone

Civil Aviation Act 2023

International and domestic carriage of passengers and goods by air - International carriage by air

263: Further provisions in relation to time for bringing proceedings

You could also call this:

"Time limits for taking someone to court over something that happened on a plane"

Illustration for Civil Aviation Act 2023

When you want to take someone to court about something that happened on a plane, there are rules about how long you have to do it. These rules also apply if you want to use arbitration, which is like a special kind of negotiation, instead of going to court. You can find more information about arbitration in section 262 and the Montreal Convention.

If you do decide to use arbitration, it is treated as starting in the same way as described in Schedule 1 of the Arbitration Act 1996. The court can also decide to stop an arbitration decision from being used, and if that happens, the time it took to make that decision might not count towards the time you have to start new court proceedings. This means you might still have time to take someone to court even if the arbitration took a long time.

There are other rules about time limits for starting court proceedings, and you can find them in section 39 of the Limitation Act 2010. These rules are separate from the ones about arbitration and court proceedings for things that happen on planes. They work together to help figure out how long you have to take someone to court.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS49935.

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Transport and travel > Air travelCrime and justice > Courts and legal help
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Part 8International and domestic carriage of passengers and goods by air
International carriage by air

263Further provisions in relation to time for bringing proceedings

  1. The following provisions have effect as if references in those provisions to an action included references to an arbitration:

  2. section 262:
    1. Article 35 of the Montreal Convention:
      1. Article 29 of the amended Convention.

        1. Subsections (3) and (4) (which determine the time at which an arbitration is deemed to have commenced) apply for the purposes of subsection (1).

        2. An arbitration (whether under legislation or under an arbitration agreement) must be treated as being commenced in the same manner as provided in Article 21 of Schedule 1 of the Arbitration Act 1996.

        3. If the High Court orders that an award be set aside, it may also order that the period between the commencement of the arbitration and the date of the setting aside order must be excluded in computing the time prescribed by this section for the commencement of civil proceedings (including arbitration) with respect to the dispute referred.

        4. Subsections (2) to (4) do not limit or affect section 39 of the Limitation Act 2010.

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