The on-going proceedings in Singh v Singh relate to the Calvary Indian Assembly of God (Calvary), which has been established as a charitable trust (the Trust) with a board of trustees who hold the Trust’s assets. Separately, Calvary is an incorporated society with a board responsible for the church’s management and organisation. At the relevant time all of the trustees are members of the church board, which has one member who is not a trustee. The two separate boards have different rules.
An application that all board members retire and new appointments made on account of an irreconcilable division between the current trust and board members was unsuccessful. While van Bohemen J accepted that there was an impasse that was not likely to be resolved (Singh v Singh [2025] NZHC 364) the orders sought were not made. A number of reasons were given including that:
- while the application is framed as an application under the Trusts Act 2019 to remove trustees, it is clear that the intention is to remove the existing trustees and the members of the church board, which exceed the powers pursuant to section 114 of the Trusts Act
- it was not clear that the orders sought would cure the impasse as these did not prevent any removed trustees being put forward for re-election. An option to allow the court to address eligibility criteria was not able to be agreed between the parties, and
- the consequences of such orders to Calvary as they could be considered as vindication of the actions that lead to the court intervention.
The decision provides a nuanced approach to the remedy of removing trustees and the bigger picture. In a successful Beddoe application with respect to an associated application for judicial review (Singh v Singh [2025] NZHC 1952) reference is made to the applicants’ “blindingly obvious” responsibility for the impasse.
References:
- Singh v Singh [2024] NZHC 2736
- Singh v Singh [2024] NZHC 2685
- Singh v Singh [2025] NZHC 364
- Singh v Singh [2025] NZHC 1516
- Singh v Singh [2025] NZHC 1952
- Time v Fagalilo [2011] NZCA 402
Matters of Trust 
This came into perfect time. Somewhat unbelievably I have a trial starting tomorrow concerning an assemblies of God church and a dispute concerning and Incorporated society and a trust…!
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Posted by Steve Keall | August 3, 2025, 6:17 pm