A legal dispute between two trucking operations has seen a massive payout ordered by the court against Heavy Haulage Australia. The dispute between HHA and Mansell Heavy Towing concerns an accident back in February 2013.
This week the District Court of Queensland told HHA, and General Manager, Jon Kelly, it had to pay Mansell’s $162,589, at the end of a civil case taken to court to sort out who should pay for the recovery of a 78 tonne generator.
The generator was being carried by truck and trailer near Augathella, Queensland, when an accident occurred and the generator needed to be recovered. Mansell’s had originally agreed to pay HHA to recover the generator, expecting to be reimbursed by claiming the amount back from their insurance.
When the insurance claim failed to eventuate, the two companies ended up in a long dispute, which came to a head in the courtroom. Judgement was given to Mansell’s when the court found Mansell’s had a right to expect the recovery to be carried out as restitution, in the circumstances.
A report in the Toowoomba Chronicle quotes Creevey Russell Lawyers principal, Dan Creevey, who was representing Mansell’s in the case, as saying the judge picked out HHA Boss, Jon Kelly, for criticism, for being misleading.
“The court also found that the director of the defendant company was a person involved in a contravention of the Australian Consumer Law,” said Creevey. “He was personally liable in that he had actual knowledge of all relevant facts and knew it was misleading if the defendant were not to make or facilitate a claim against the actual insurer.”