Adani Mining Pty Ltd v Pennings

SUPREME COURT OF QUEENSLAND

CITATION:

Adani Mining Pty Ltd & Anor v Pennings [2020] QSC 249

PARTIES:

ADANI MINING PTY LTD ACN 145 455 205

(first applicant)
and
CARMICHAEL RAIL NETWORK PTY LTD as trustee for the CARMICHAEL RAIL NETWORK TRUST
ACN 601 738 665
(second applicant)

v
BENJAMIN WILLIAM DEVENISH PENNINGS

(respondent)

FILE NO:

6666 of 2020

DIVISION:

Trial

PROCEEDING:

Ex parte Application

ORIGINATING COURT:

Supreme Court at Brisbane

DELIVERED ON:

22 June 2020, ex tempore

DELIVERED AT:

Brisbane

HEARING DATE:

5 June 2020

JUDGE:

Dalton J

ORDER:

Application dismissed

COUNSEL:

S Doyle QC with M Doyle and M Eade for the applicants

SOLICITORS:

Dowd & Company for the applicants

HER HONOUR:   This is an application filed by leave on a hearing organised at short notice on the afternoon of 5 June 2020.  There is a delay in giving my decision on this matter and, even though the hearing was organised at short notice, the matters which are the subject of the application are not urgent, as was conceded by counsel on the hearing.

The case does involve some unusual features, but I mention that one simply because, in assessing the evidence that is put before me on this hearing, I take into account that the subject matter of the hearing has been something which has been continuing for more than three years, that is, the application, although it seeks relief in the nature of an Anton Piller order, was not prepared in haste.  The applicant had ample time to prepare it and put whatever material it wanted before the Court.

The application is made by the applicants for a search order in the nature of an Anton Piller order pursuant to chapter 8, part 2, division 3 of the UCPR or the Court’s inherent jurisdiction. The applicants seek to have collected and preserved material which, the evidence indicates, is in the possession of the Respondent Pennings and which they say was induced to be divulged to him in breach of confidence (contractual and equitable) and as a result of tortious action such as intimidation and conspiracy. The applicants undertake to file a claim and statement of claim in terms of CW5 to the affidavit of Christopher Wilson, filed by leave on 5 June 2020.

Mr Pennings, I think it may be well accepted, is a leading force in, and a spokesman for, something which is a loose association called the Galilee Blockade.  As I say, the association is probably a fairly loose collection of activists, and the material shows that, from the beginning of 2017, the Galilee Blockade has sought to frustrate, and indeed prevent, the development of the Carmichael Mine by the first applicant and the rail network which supports that mine by the second applicant.

In general terms, the Galilee Blockade has and continues to solicit information from the public.  One of its tactics is to obtain information as to the applicants’ contractors and put pressure on them by generating negative publicity based on their association…