The Court entered judgment for the lender on a personal guarantee, finding that the guarantor failed to establish on the balance of probabilities that the lender's principal made oral representations that the guarantee would not be enforced, given the complete absence of contemporaneous corroboration, the late emergence of the allegation, and post-conversation conduct inconsistent with the alleged assurance. On an alternative basis, the Court held that even if the representations had been made, they were statements of present intention only and did not satisfy the requirements for promissory estoppel under Waltons Stores v Maher (lacking the requisite assumption that the promisor would not be free to withdraw) or for misleading or deceptive conduct under s 18 ACL, and that no recoverable loss was established because the competing offer was not a genuine commercial proposition capable of completion. The Court also granted declaratory relief as to the guarantor's contractual obligation to provide security over foreign land, holding that domestic proceedings concerning Victorian-law-governed contracts were not an abuse of process merely because preservation proceedings were on foot in Slovenia concerning the same property.
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