Again! New Zealand Court Enforces Chinese Judgment

In 2023, the High Court of New Zealand ruled to enforce a judgment of a Beijing local court, marking the second time that a Chinese court monetary judgment has been recognized and enforced in New Zealand (BIN v SUN [2023] NZHC 436).

Key takeaways:

• In March 2023, the High Court of New Zealand ruled to enforce a monetary judgment of a Beijing local court. (See BIN v SUN [2023] NZHC 436).
• This case marks the second time, following the first case in 2016 ( Yang Chen v. Jinzhu Lin [2016] NZCA 113), that a Chinese court monetary judgment has been recognized and enforced in New Zealand.

On 8 Mar. 2023, the High Court of New Zealand, in the case of BIN v SUN [2023] NZHC 436, ruled to recognize a judgment of Haidian Primary People’s Court, Beijing, China.

Accordingly, the High Court of New Zealand upheld the Applicant’s claim in obtaining NZD 1,498,764.13, equivalent of the Chinese judgment together with interest and costs.

Ⅰ. Case Overview

The Claimant is MENG BIN and the Respondent is FANG SUN.

A dispute arose between the Claimant and the Respondent over an agreement of equity transfer, after which the Claimant filed a lawsuit with the Haidian Primary People’s Court, Beijing.

On 30 June 2019, the Haidian Primary People’s Court, Beijing ruled in favor of the Claimant. On 29 July 2019, the Respondent and other debtors in the judgment appealed to Beijing First Intermediate People’s Court. On 25 Nov. 2019, the appellate court dismissed the appeal.

The Haidian Primary People’s Court, Beijing thereafter only partially enforced the judgment. Therefore, the Claimant tried to seek recognition and enforcement of the judgment in New Zealand.

The Respondent was imprisoned in Paremoremo Prison on 23 Nov. 2022 for his involvement in a murder in New Zealand.

The High Court of New Zealand upheld the application for summary judgment based on the affidavits of both the applicant and his attorney in the Chinese litigation.

On 8 Mar. 2023, the High Court of New Zealand heard the case and issued an Oral Judgment in court, in which it upheld the Claimant’s claim for recognition of the Chinese judgment.

Ⅱ. Our Comments

To our knowledge, this case marks the second time that a New Zealand court has recognized and enforced a Chinese judgment.

On 11 Apr. 2016, the Court of Appeal of New Zealand enforced a Chinese monetary judgment to its full value in Yang Chen v. Jinzhu Lin, CA334/2015, [2016] NZCA 113. This is the first time that New Zealand has recognized and enforced a Chinese judgment.

In recent years, more and more wealthy Chinese are emigrating overseas, and New Zealand is one of their most important destination countries. While transferring their assets overseas, many of them leave debts in China. It is foreseeable that more and more Chinese judgments will be applied for recognition and enforcement in these destination countries, including New Zealand.

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