An unnamed financial planner is at the centre of a legal battle between directors of failed agribusiness firm Timbercorp and a class action of former investors.
Melbourne-based lawyers Macpherson + Kelley (M+K) principal Ron Willemsen said defences filed on behalf of Timbercorp directors sought to pass partial blame for the company’s collapse onto the financial adviser.
“The directors are basically just denying the allegations, which means they are putting the investors to the proof of their case,” Willemsen said.
“One of the Timbercorp companies is seeking to pass part of the blame onto a financial planner who was the financial planner for the lead plaintiff.
“There was also an accountant that Timbercorp were interested in seeing whether they could pass blame onto him. But they are not pursuing that.”
Willemsen said he would put forward a formal reply to the directors’ claim on behalf of the investors.
“The other thing, of course, is that Timbercorp Finance made a counter-claim against the lead plaintiff for payment of the outstanding money under the loans,” he said.
“We will be putting in a defence to counter-claim. We’re seeking the loan to be declared invalid, so the function of these pleadings is to set the parameters of the dispute and that will form the boundaries of the case so far as what decisions the court has to make.”
Meanwhile, M+K intends to lodge orders for the formal discovery of Timbercorp documents before the hearing returns to court on 17 July.
“In the meantime there has been, at the court’s request, some communication between M+K on behalf of the investors and the lawyers of the Timbercorp company about speeding up the availability of the documents to look at,” he said.
Timbercorp collapsed in April 2009.
