MA & J Tripodi Pty Ltd (v Swan Hill Chemicals Pty Ltd

[2019] VSCA 46

Victorian Court of Appeal

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Damages
2. › Loss of opportunity
3. › Loss of commercial opportunity
4. › Proposed business venture
5. › Whether sufficient evidence adduced regarding production costs, sale price and sales volumes to establish venture would have been profitable
6. › Whether court obliged to estimate damages where plaintiff failed to adduce evidence within its control
1. Damages
2. › Wasted expenditure
3. › Whether judge erred in awarding damages for wasted production costs on basis not specifically claimed by plaintiff
4. › Whether procedural fairness denied to defendant
1. Costs
2. › Offer of compromise
3. › All-in offer inclusive of costs
4. › Whether judge erred in refusing to make special costs order
5. › Whether judge erred in declining to refer assessment of costs to Costs Court
6. › County Court Civil Procedure Rules 2008 (Vic), r 26.08(3)
1. Costs
2. › Discretion
3. › Mixed success
4. › Whether costs order unreasonable or plainly unjust where plaintiff succeeded on liability but largely failed on damages
5. › House v The King (1936) 55 CLR 499

Quick Take

Practitioners pursuing loss of commercial opportunity claims for business ventures must ensure they adduce admissible evidence of production costs, sale price, and sales volumes — failure to prove any one of these key components, where the evidence is within the plaintiff's control, will be fatal to the claim.