The Adani Group appears to have been the applicant or been named as a respondent in around seven court cases between 2013 and 2020.
Sunday 30 August 2020
Court of Appeal rejects Adani's application to search an activist's home & Supreme Court orders Adani to pay $106.8 million to four companies - in part due to its own "serious dishonesty"
ABC
News,
27 August 2020:
Mining
company Adani secretly sought to raid the Brisbane home of an
activist to seize evidence but failed twice, court documents have
revealed.
Adani
and its Carmichael Rail Network applied for a search order, known as
an Anton Piller order, against Benjamin Pennings in June this year.
It
claimed Mr Pennings had possession of "confidential information
on a computer at his home" which was being used in a concerted
campaign of "intimidation and conspiracy" against the
Galilee Basin coal project.
As
part of the application, Adani claimed Mr Pennings had information to
which only company executives and other select staff and contractors
had access.
Anton
Piller orders are searches carried out without notice to the
defendant to ensure that evidence cannot be destroyed and is
preserved to be used in judicial proceedings.
Adani's
court application and subsequent appeal in July were also heard ex
parte, meaning they were both heard without notice.
Adani
has described Mr Pennings as the "principal" of a group of
political activists called the "Galilee Blockade", whose
objective is to prevent the development of the mine and railway.
In
rejecting Adani and Carmichael Rail Network's appeal last week, the
Court of Appeal ruled the evidence was "wholly inadequate to
justify the order sought".
"The
appellants have failed to establish the likelihood that Mr Pennings
has any confidential information or that he has any confidential
information stored at his home," the Court of Appeal judges
said.
"They
have failed to establish the likelihood that the use of any
confidential information has resulted in any loss."
The
Court of Appeal also raised concerns about the impact of a search
order could have had on Mr Pennings' partner and children.
"Surely,
to permit a search of a defendant's house, with the humiliation and
family distress which that might involve, lies at the outer boundary
of the discretion," the Court of Appeal judges said.
"This
is because, for reasons that anyone can understand, the 'shock,
anger, confusion' and the 'sense of violation and powerlessness' will
be much greater in such a case and may be suffered not only by
someone who is proved in due course to be a wrongdoer, but by
entirely innocent parties as well."……
Read
the full article here.
BACKGROUND
The Adani Group appears to have been the applicant or been named as a respondent in around seven court cases between 2013 and 2020.
This
is the latest:
Adani
Abbot Point Terminal Pty Ltd v Lake Vermont Resources Pty Ltd &
Ors [2020] QSC 260 –
26
August
2020. Adani ordered to pay $106.8
million.
Excerpts from the judgment:
“[197]
The applicant’s conduct was deliberate, not just heedless or
indifferent 81 to the position of the remaining users. The applicant
was fully cognisant as to the effect its behaviour would have in
increasing the fixed costs to the remaining users. It desired that
effect in order to advantage itself financially. That is, to achieve
a gain for itself, the applicant engaged in calculated behaviour to
the disadvantage of the respondents.82
This is evident in the timing and structure of the QCPL
transactions.”
“[203]
The applicant’s behaviour in attempting to disguise or camouflage
the true basis of its dealings with QCPL involved dishonesty –
[117] ff and [122], and so far as this proceeding is concerned,
involved serious dishonesty – [98] and [121].”
Labels:
Adani Group,
coal,
environmental vandalism,
law,
mining,
multinationals,
Supreme Court
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