IF YE ARE PREPARED YE SHALL NOT FEAR

Monday afternoon I caught a flight down to Wellington, NZ’s capital.  Spent the night at the Bolton hotel again.  Tuesday I got up early and took a walk down by the waterfront for exercise.  Then I showered and dressed while listening to a US Press conference featuring Pres. Trump and his advisors updating the world on US attempts to address the coronavirus (covid 19) panic.  Then I hiked to the NZ Appellate Court House for our 10 a.m. hearing on my Ward Missionary Fund case.  The issue is whether Church members can claim a tax credit for their WMF donations, similar to the charitable tax deduction in the US.  At the lower court level (called the High Court), the judge split the baby so to speak, disallowing the tax credit for the missionary, parents and grandparents, but allowing it for aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, or anyone else.  Both the Church and the IRD (Inland Revenue Department, NZ’s IRS), appealed.  Anyway, we hired barrister Richard Green and Nick Bland of SimpsonGrierson to argue our appeal (since I’m not licensed in NZ).  The hearing went remarkably well, lasting all day, the justices were all asking the right questions, and from their questioning and comments I’m predicting a complete victory/vindication for us and defeat for the IR Commissioner.  I thought that Queen’s Counsel was basically incompetent.  I’ve been working on this case for the last 9 months to bring it to fruition.  We should get a written decision in 45-60 days.  The Commissioner has been disallowing the tax credit since 2015, and if we win the members will be able to get that money back, 33% of all monies donated to the WMF up to the total amount they paid in taxes.  This will be big if we get the High Court decision reversed, there will be a lot of happy Church members in NZ.  Afterwards that evening I flew back to Auckland and met up with Sis. Gubler again. 

Alisa flew back from the US on Tuesday morning, after helping with Rachel, Redd and family, and visiting our other kids.  She flew to the US the day before the Church banned further international travel, and returned back in time to beat NZ’s closing of the borders on Thursday due to the virus.  However, she is self-isolated (quarantined) in our apartment for 2 weeks as a result.  She doesn’t seem to mind that since she can do a lot of her writing on the home computer.

There have been some other interesting side effects of the Covid19 panic.  The US stock market has dropped by 35%, people are being asked to stay home such that businesses are closing, jobs are being lost, cruise lines have stopped running, airlines are downsizing and closing routes, and people are panicking.  After Prime Minister Ardern closed the NZ borders on Thursday, a run on the supermarkets began here just as has been happening in the US.  Alisa and I are ok for now since we have little in the stock market but it will be interesting to see if all our tenants will be able to continue to pay rent if they lose their jobs.  The Book of Mormon Musical, which was to play here in Auckland, got canceled this week due to restrictions on the size of groups, so all the concerns about its potential negative effect didn’t play out.  The Church keeps sending home missionaries from around the world, sending home missionaries this week from the Philippines, and is closing down all 11 MTCs around the world and is not sending out new missionaries for now.  The senior missionaries here were given the option of finishing their missions early and going home, or just finishing their missions at home.  A number of senior missionaries here have taken that option, leaving early.  Sis. Gubler and I said that we would stay here until returning home becomes non-optional, which could be soon depending on the spread of the virus. 

One of the more interesting side effects of the shut down of the economy has to do with its contractual effect.  In contracts, we have a concept referred to as the “Force majeure” or “frustration of purpose” clause.  In essence what it says is that where due to famine, epidemics, wars or acts of God, the purpose of a contract is frustrated or becomes impossible to perform, then a party can get out of the contract.  I learned about this in law school, but never in my 35+ year career did I ever think such a clause would come into effect.  It did here!  I was contacted by Norm in Physical Facilities about it this week, and in quickly reviewing our contracts, I saw that we had such a clause in our Construction contract form, but not in our LDSQ tender (bid) contract.  I quickly drafted one up and included it in the LDSQ form, but it will only be good with new tenders going forward.  What about the contract for weekly cleaning services or emptying the trash in a chapel or stake center, which building isn’t being used now since Sacrament and other meetings have been cancelled world-wide?  We just signed the contract for the new food caterer at the NZ MTC here in Auckland, 3 meals a day, 7 days a week, I believe for 1 year, which is for around $1 million.  What do we do with all that food when the MTC shuts down in a week?!  Some interesting legal ramifications ahead, we’ll have to deal with each contractor individually around the Pacific, on a case by case basis!

The other big news this week was that there was a 5.9 earthquake in SLC on Wednesday, causing the Angel Moroni’s trumpet to drop out of his hands from atop the temple there!  I spent all day in the office on Saturday since Alisa is quarantined and I can’t travel anywhere.  It gave me time to transfer the final 6 litigation cases from Elder Low to myself, since he left to return to America.

Took an early morning stroll along the Takapuna beach today.