Auckland Council will decide if an upgraded Eden Park or a new stadium will be the city's national stadium and Auckland Transport struggles to collect bus and transit lane fines.
Kristina Briggs is the director of one of those agencies — Normans Rd Real Estate — and argues rebranding is a repudiation of the franchise agreement with Mike Pero.
She cancelled the agreement and continued to work through a new company.
But Raine & Horne argued it was entitled to the rebrand and to refuse was a breach of agreement.
In September, the High Court declined Raine & Horne’s application for an interim injunction, which would have applied restraint of trade provisions to Normans Rd and Briggs.
Mike Pero Real Estate was bought by Australian operation Raine & Horne a year ago.
The judge noted the overall justice of the case favoured Normans Rd and Briggs and an interim injunction would have stopped them trading.
Raine & Horne filed a notice of appeal and said it was not required to first obtain leave to do so.
But the Court of Appeal was unpersuaded by its arguments and struck out its appeal on Wednesday. It said Raine & Horne would need to apply for and obtain leave to appeal from the High Court, or failing that, the Court of Appeal, before it could continue.
“Without the prior grant of leave, this Court has no jurisdiction to hear the appeal.”
Franchise NZ general manager Sally Knight said there could be serious effects for a franchise network’s businesses when a franchisee terminated an agreement and rebranded.
She pointed to one case a decade ago where injunctions were granted against a Club Physical gym franchise that rebranded three Auckland outlets without warning.
She said, in this case, the injunction was only sought against one franchisee, so the effect of other franchisees’ activities on other businesses operating in the network was not considered sufficient to warrant an injunction.
