The ACT Court of Appeal dismissed appeals by unit purchasers who alleged that an investment brochure contained false and misleading representations inducing their purchase of hotel units. The Court held that the trial judge's findings of fact were open on the evidence, that the brochure's economic projections were reasonably based and accompanied by appropriate disclaimers as to uncertainty, and that the operative inducement was the five-year guaranteed return rather than longer-term projections. The Court found no error in the trial judge's application of the relevant legal principles to the facts, including on causation, where competition and failure by unit holders to support the hotel were identified as primary causes of loss.
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