The case against Kerry Hoggard was taken by shareholders Roger Kerr, executive director of the New Zealand Business Roundtable, Margaret Northcroft and Catharine Franks, and was led by former ACT MP and commercial lawyer Stephen Franks. The group decided to take a private shareholder's case after Mr Hoggard bought $635,000 of Fletcher Challenge shares the day before the company's restructuring was announced. The share price rose significantly when the changes were revealed.

A Securities Commission investigation found that the Securities Markets Act 1988 had been breached.

An out-of-court settlement was reached. The amount of the settlement was such that it was 'abundantly clear' that a court would have found in favour of the consortium of shareholders. You can download the full judgement as a pdf document at this link .

A copy of the Trust deed is available here at this link .