Judge rules on family trust war

A long legal squabble between a Hawkes Bay multi-millionaire and five of his sister's children over who should control the family coffers has ended with the High Court telling them to sort it out themselves.

Justice Graham Panckhurst's ruling, delivered in the High Court at Christchurch, mainly finds in favour of five Canterbury-based Kain children - including Tom and Charles of Apple Fields fame - and their father.

They wanted their 79-year-old uncle and brother-in-law, Tom Couper, removed from his controlling position in the numerous family trusts overseeing the family's estimated $70 million farming fortune, along with trustees he appointed.

The trustees include the sixth and youngest Kain sibling, her husband, Mr Couper's second wife and an accountant.

The elder siblings said their uncle regarded the numerous family trusts as his own, and, working "unilaterally and autocratically", instructed the trustees to cut the Kains' income.

Mr Couper contended the family wealth was a result of his own hard work and he had already provided enough for his sister's children. He wanted to preserve some money for future generations.

The fortune stems from Mr Couper's father's farming interests in Hawkes Bay in the 1920s.

In his ruling Justice Panckhurst found Mr Couper and his fellow trustees should step down from the trusts but not because they had breached their positions.

Rather, the ongoing litigation had meant the family relationships were "now so dysfunctional" it made Mr Couper's position "untenable" and the removal of the other trustees "desirable".

Justice Panckhurst did not strip Mr Couper of his power of appointment to the family trusts, as the Kain siblings sought.

But that ruling was countered by his main recommendation that a professional trustee take over the family affairs - a company or individual that the judge instructed the warring family to agree on and appoint themselves.

"I have a real measure of sympathy for Mr Couper's position, that after his life work and at his age he is confronted with the present difficulties," Justice Panckhurst said.

"It must be said, however, that he does not have a keen appreciation of trusteeship ... I hope that Mr Couper is able to accept the need for a major rationalisation in order to simplify the administration of the trusts and the farming operation, and to address the rift in the family."

Of two of Mr Couper's trustees, Justice Panckhurst said he was "favourably impressed". Accountant Wayne Startup was "conscientious and competent", and Mary Kain's husband Jonathan Hutton was "a person of integrity and of business acumen".

Both, however, were too close to Mr Couper to remain as trustees.

"I think it is also relevant and necessary to bring to account the conduct of the [Kain siblings]," Justice Panckhurst said.

"I do not for a minute suggest that the faults were entirely or predominantly on their side. However, my judgment, based on my involvement with this litigation over a number of years, is that at least some of the plaintiffs are not easy to deal with."

Justice Panckhurst expected "a way forward will be found" following his judgment, even though one professional trustee company had already declined the job.

But since then a proposal had been developed by a court-appointed expert which "if implemented should sufficiently rationalise the trust and farming operation to make it manageable".

An independent professional trustee was the only answer.

KAINS AND COUPERS

High Court ruling effectively ends a five-year legal battle between the warring factions of the Couper/Kain family by removing the patriarch from his control of the purse strings.

The family made the 2004 NBR Rich List with a collective estimated worth of $70 million.

The Kains are well known in Canterbury, but brothers Tom and Charles are mostly known for setting up orchard company Apple Fields and their tangle with the Apple and Pear Marketing Board.