As I predicted, the HC has completely wiped out his claim. For anyone in the legal field, this should be no surprise. Peters like to go around acting like he knows the law better than anyone -- well, he evidently does not. Nor does he have a very good lawyer, as Brian Henry evidently isn't, given the following zingers from the former Chief High Court Judge:

In summary, there are a number of elements to Mr Peters’ claim against Ms Bennett and Ms Tolley but they come down to the following key points. First, that he had a reasonable expectation of privacy that the details of the payment irregularity would be kept private. For the reasons given above, I accept that has been established to the extent that he had a reasonable expectation it would only be disclosed to those persons who had a proper interest or genuine need to know. I also accept that public disclosure would be considered highly offensive by a reasonable objective person. Again, for the reasons above, I agree that disclosure of the payment irregularity to the media with the intention it be made publicly available would be considered offensive to a reasonable objective person.

 

... Mr Peters’ pleaded case against the first and third defendants is based on the reasoning that the first and third defendants were members of a political party opposed to Mr Peters so that the information must have been leaked by them to persons who disclosed it to the media... But Mr Henry did not pursue that case directly in closing submission. He cannot rely on res ipsa loquitur to make it out.

All up, aside from establishing that he had a reasonable expectation of privacy in respect of the information relating to how he inadvertently mis-filled the super application form, the HC rejected everything else pleaded by Peters. If you can't even judge the merits of your case properly as a lawyer and with the benefit of legal advice, why should anyone trust him with any governance? I am no fan of the National Party characters involved but hopefully this failure helps to get rid of the obnoxious Peters' political career once and for all, given the noises and accusations that he was making about others and their utter evisceration by the only people that should matter. The HC essentially ruled that he couldn't prove that Tolley and Bennett were the leakers.

Court decision for anyone wanting to laugh at his expense.