Thomas Ian Bampton v Viterra Limited
[2015] HCASL 249
THOMAS IAN BAMPTON
v
VITERRA LIMITED
[2015] HCASL 249
A15/2015
The applicant brought proceedings in the District Court of South Australia (Judge Slattery) claiming the sum of $243,461.92 by way of redundancy payment under his contract of employment with Viterra Limited ("Viterra").
The applicant was employed as Viterra's Business Manager with responsibility for managing its terminal and country operations on the Eyre Peninsula. Following a review, Viterra determined to separate the functions carried out by the applicant into two positions: Terminal Manager and Country Manager. This decision was conveyed to the applicant, who was informed that it was likely he would be offered the role of Country Manager at the same level of salary and conditions of employment, save that he would need to travel further to work each day.
The applicant contended that Viterra's conduct was repudiatory and entitled him to terminate his contract of employment and claim the redundancy payment for which it provided.
Judge Slattery found that the separation of the applicant's functions into two roles had not resulted in him being made redundant within the terms of the contractual redundancy policy. The applicant appealed to the Full Court of the Supreme Court of South Australia (Kourakis CJ, Vanstone and Blue JJ). Despite differences in their reasoning, their Honours were unanimous in upholding that finding.
The applicant applies for special leave to appeal on multiple grounds which, amongst other matters, challenge the construction of the provision engaging the redundancy payment and the finding that the applicant resigned on 26 July 2010. The special leave questions that are suggested to arise do not raise any issue of principle suitable for the grant of special leave.
The application is dismissed.
Pursuant to r 41.11.1, we direct the Registrar to draw up, sign and seal an order dismissing the application with costs.
V.M. Bell
17 December 2015S.J. Gageler
0
0
0