Muir v Commissioner of Inland Revenue

Dr. Garry Albert Muir's appeal against the decisions of the High Court and the Court of Appeal of New Zealand, which found that his attempts to amend his challenge proceedings against the Commissioner of Inland Revenue's assessments of his taxes for the years 1997 to 2010 constituted an abuse of process, has been dismissed. The Court of Appeal had previously upheld the High Court's decision to strike out Dr. Muir's challenges as an abuse of process. Dr. Muir argued that he was entitled to replead his challenge proceedings as the repleaded challenges involved facts the courts had not previously considered. However, the Court of Appeal found that the challenge proceedings had been substantively dismissed, and therefore, Dr. Muir could not pursue his new response by filing amended pleadings in those proceedings. The appeals were dismissed, and Dr. Muir was ordered to pay one set of costs for a standard appeal on a band A basis and usual disbursements.