Green family settles row over rich-lister’s legacy
A court-approved family settlement has been reached that has seen the control of trusts established by deceased rich-lister Hugh Green change hands.
Businessman and philanthropist Hugh Green – who left school at 12 before making his fortune in the livestock industry – died of cancer in 2012.
Three of his children had been involved in a dispute over the control of two trusts that own companies with assets of hundreds of millions of dollars.
These include several residential and shopping developments in Auckland, the Mangatangi River Rock quarry, Pukekohe livestock yard and tracts of farmland near Auckland and in Waikato.
The High Court in Auckland approved the terms of a binding settlement between the adult beneficiaries of Hugh Green’s estate.
Justice Matthew Muir said that ‘‘in broad terms’’ the settlement meant Hugh Green’s eldest daughter, Maryanne Green, and her daughter Alice Piper, would receive a sum equal to about 14 per cent of the assets of the trusts.
Maryanne Green would retire as trustee of the Hugh Green Trust and the Hugh Green Property Trust, with siblings John Green and Frances Green appointed as trustees.
Maryanne Green would no longer be a beneficiary of those trusts.
The Court of Appeal had previously heard that Maryanne Green was the only one of Hugh Green’s five children to work closely with him in the family business for any length of time, including as chief executive of the family business Green Group.