Some of you may be aware of some of the issues that I have had over the past two or three years that have spilled over into issues with the New Zealand Police and the Ministry of Justice. I will spare you many of the details for now but I have been assaulted a number of times and threatened a number of other times. Court staff in particular seem to use intimidation as their go to means of attempting to control people. To me that is simply assault – a threat of force that causes the other person to believe they have the present ability to carry out, to paraphrase the Crimes Act. In the most recent example the court staff tried to remove me apparently under the Court Security Act (so they said) just for not following instructions or obeying requests. A power I do not believe they have under that act. I asked to speak to a manager and then asked to be allowed to check the legislation and then to act accordingly. Instead two officers jumped on me and forced me to the floor and called police.
Over the past two weeks I have tried to take action in the District Court against the police and the ministry of justice. Most recently that was denied because the court claims that neither the NZ Police nor the Ministry of Justice are an artificial person and so I cannot list them as respondents in court action.
That seems contrary to the Crown Proceedings Act 1950 which at s12 says
Subject to the provisions of this Act or any other Act, all civil proceedings which must be taken by, or may be brought against, the Crown under this Act may be commenced, heard, and determined in the same court and in like manner in all respects as in suits between subject and subject.
and at s14
Subject to the provisions of this Act and any other Act, civil proceedings under this Act against the Crown shall be instituted against—
(a)
the appropriate government department in its own name if the department may be sued apart from this section; or
(b)
the appropriate officer of the Crown in the name in which he or she may be sued on behalf of the Crown or of any government department if the officer may be sued on behalf of the Crown or of any government department apart from this section; or
(c)
the Attorney-General if there is no such appropriate department or officer or if the person instituting the proceedings has any reasonable doubt whether any and, if so, which department or officer is appropriate; or
(d)
any 2 or more of them jointly.
I am going to try to take the action against the Commissioner of Police and the CEO of the Ministry of Justice this week. My backup plan then is to take an action against the Attorney General (or the Crown).
I was referred by the court to a case DSW v Allan 1993 in which it was held that the Department of Social Welfare and the Inland Revenue Department were not separate “persons” but just separate administrative arms of the Crown who was the “person” to whom monies were owed in that case. To me this seems to be contrary to the Interpretation Act s29 which defines a person to include:
includes a corporation sole, a body corporate, and an unincorporated body
I would have considered a government department or the New Zealand Police as a body corporate.
The judge last week also claimed that the use of “he or she” qualified “person” so that I could not take action against an “artificial person”.
Does anyone have any experience or legal expertise that could help clarify for me who I need to name as a defendant in civil proceedings against the government.
Thanks