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Ngāti Paoa Iwi Trust says the crown is to blame for divisions within the iwi.
The trust failed in a bid last Friday to stop the tribe's negotiator signing the Hauraki Collective Settlement, but it is now seeking a declaration from the High Court that the crown cannot take any steps towards the next stage of the settlement based on the signing.
Chief executive Haydn Solomon says the negotiators should have waited until the release of a report into the proposed commercial structure for shared ownership of Hauraki forests.
He says they should also have waited for next month's Waitangi Tribunal inquiry into the Hauraki settlement and overlapping claims, but came under pressure from crown officials.
"This happened in 2007 in the Tāmaki Inquiry where Judge Wainwright found the crown's processes lacked any good faith in negotiations. We're saying exactly the same thing here in terms of the crown's dealing with Ngāti Paoa dealing with the crown in Hauraki and in Marutūahu," Mr Solomon says.
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