Brett Martelli

Introducing Brett Martelli

brett@mylawyers.co.nz
09 300 3153

Director

Brett Martelli is a director and litigator at Martelli Yaqub Lawyers. Brett has over 20 years of experience advising clients on a range of civil and commercial disputes, predominantly in the High Court. Brett focuses on facilitating the best results for clients without involving the courts (and therefore avoiding the high cost and risk of court hearings). His approach is to provide advice that is pragmatic and understandable. His work regularly involves helping:

  • Commercial lessors to recover unpaid rent, re-enter leased premises and generally protect their properties;
  • Lenders to know whether they have priority over other creditors and how best to enforce securities over land and personal property;
  • Construction companies to recover payments due to them under the Construction Contracts Act, or avoid unmeritorious claims by subcontractors;
  • Liquidators to determine which creditors have provable debts, which creditors are secured and whether the liquidators can recover unpaid current accounts, preferential payments to creditors and gifts.
  • Companies and directors regarding all kinds of contractual disputes

Sometimes disputes cannot be resolved out of court. Examples of Brett’s court work include:

  • Obtaining indemnity costs for liquidators against non-parties, James v NZSouthPole Team Limited (in liq) [2021] NZHC 1682
  • Obtaining leave for a company to bring a claim against a bankrupt and obtaining judgment against the bankrupt, Adventure Hobson Ltd v Cockery [2020] NZHC 675.
  • Requiring a building disputes tribunal adjudicator to reconsider costs and give reasons, Ace Structural Limited v Green [2019] NZHC 1558.
  • Obtaining directions on how a body corporate should claim debts from unit owners, Body Corporate 170989 v Aquila Holdings Limited [2020] NZHC 758.
  • Stopping a debtor from arguing that it had a genuine defence to a claim, Body Corporate 170989 v Marina Resort Ltd [2016] NZ HC 2831.
  • Applying successfully to restore a development company to the register for the removed company to pursue its parent company for the profits paid to the parent to be applied to the costs to repair a leaky development. Wellington City Council v Registrar of Companies [2015] NZHC 572.
  • Applications to place bodies corporate into administration.