Professional Construction Control (Australia) Pty Ltd v Atkins Campbell & Associates Pty Ltd & Ors [1984] FCA 25

IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA NEW SOUTH WALES DISTRICT REGISTRY

GENERAL DIVISION

No. G.13 of 1983

CORAM:

DATE:

PLACE:

BETWEEN: PROFESSIONAL CONSTRUCTIO! CONTROL (AUSTRALIA) PTY. LIMITED Applicant AND: ATKINS CAMPBELL &

ASSOCIATES PTY. LIMITED

First Resvondent

ALAN ATKINS

Second Respondent

COLIN CAMPBELL

Third Respondent

ORDERS ST. JOHN, J. TUESDAY, 28th FEBRUARY, 1984 SYDNEY

The application is dismissed.

The applicant is ordered to pay the cespondents'

costs.

IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

NEW SOUTH WALES DISTRICT REGISTRY No. G.13 of 1983

ee wv

GENERAL DIVISION

BETWEEN : PROFESSIONAL CONSTRUCTION CONTROL (AUSTRALIA) PTY. LIMITED Applicant AND: ATKINS CAMPBELL &

ASSOCIATES PTY. LIMITED

First Respondent

ALAN ATKINS

Second Respondent

COLIN CAMPBELL

Third Respondent

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT

CORAM: ST. JOHN, J. DATE: TUESDAY, 28th FEBRUARY, 1984. PLACE: SYDNEY

The applicant company seeks damaqes from the

respondents pursuant to Section 82 of the Trade Practices Act,

1974 ("the Act") for alleged breaches of Sections 52, 53 and

tv

55 of Part V of the Act and also for fraud and neaqligent misstatement, all of which causes of action are based upon certain statements, oral and in writing, alleged to have been made by or on behalf of the respondents about the performance and capacity of @ mobile concrete block-making machine imported into this country from Italy by the respondents and

mounted on a trailer.

The applicant company, of which Michael Wallace was a director was based in Lismore, to where Michael Wallace retired from his former occupation of quantity surveyor. In December, 1981 Michael Wallace became aware of a building system known as Boralok, which system consisted of building by Means of placing together interlocking concrete building blocks which did not need mortar in order to effect a joint between the blocks, and which blocks were marketed by the first respondent. Michael Wallace approached the first respondent by speaking to one of its directors, namely the second respondent, and expressed the interest of the applicant company in becoming an agent for marketing houses constructed in the Boralok system in and around Lismore. In February the following year, Michael Wallace attended the offices of the first respondent where he learned that the latter was in the process of importing from Italy a machine for making concrete blocks which would later be mounted on a trailer and made mobile. Negotiations then commenced with a view to reaching