Supreme Court parking ticket appeal refused

Lee Vandervis
Lee Vandervis
Dunedin city councillor Lee Vandervis says he is "very disappointed" his legal battle, sparked by a $12 parking ticket, is now over.

Cr Vandervis was yesterday declined leave to appeal by the highest jurisdiction in the country — the Supreme Court.

His appeal raised "no point of public importance", nor was there any appearance of a miscarriage of justice, ruled the court.

On September 13, 2019, Cr Vandervis received the parking ticket after exceeding the time limit in his 30-minute spot.

He then remonstrated with a customer-service staff member, who later emailed then council chief executive Dr Sue Bidrose to make a formal complaint over his conduct.

That resulted in David Benham being brought in to independently investigate.

He decided, after a preliminary assessment, that the complaint warranted a full inquiry and he gave his results to the council after interviewing all relevant parties.

Cr Vandervis was eventually censured.

In 2020, he challenged the legitimacy of the process through judicial review in the High Court, which was dismissed.

The next year, he appealed that judgement in the Court of Appeal, which similarly knocked him back in a decision released in June.

Cr Vandervis sought leave to bring the case before the Supreme Court, but that was declined in a four-page judgement released yesterday.

He was ordered to pay costs of $2500.

However, that figure might be far greater given the earlier adverse results.

Before the Supreme Court decision, Dunedin City Council confirmed the entire episode had cost it more than $100,000 — $14,148 for the initial investigation; $56,678 for the High Court case and $30,856 for the Court of Appeal.

The council previously confirmed a third party had paid the $12 ticket.

Cr Vandervis acknowledged the issue might affect his mayoral challenge in the upcoming election.

"Losing the Supreme Court attempt to clear my name, or being upfront about my personal views was always going to weaken my mayoral chances, but I believe it had to be done," he said.

Cr Vandervis said his legal fees would be tens of thousands of dollars "but it would also have been painful just to roll over and accept the gross injustice of being anonymously cancelled".

rob.kidd@odt.co.nz

 

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