Court of Appeal grants leave to appeal in Gloriavale banking case

The Court of Appeal has given BNZ permission to appeal a High Court decision injuncting it from closing Gloriavale’s bank accounts. The High Court had refused to give permission to appeal.

This is a good result: the High Court’s decision stands in contrast to another recent High Court decision (Targa Capital), and the High Court implied a term requiring the bank to act reasonably in closing a customer’s account, even though the bank’s terms allow it to close an account “for any reason”.

Appeals from an injunction are rare, but as the Court of Appeal acknowledged, this appeal will have “important precedential value, including for future injunctive relief applications in the banking context”.