Roderick v Washington H Soul Pattinson & Company Limited (No 2) [2020] NSWSC 1224

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Roderick v Washington H Soul Pattinson & Company Limited (No 2) [2020] NSWSC 1224 Hearing dates: 1, 4, 5, 6 and 7 May 2020 Date of orders: 10 September 2020 Decision date: 10 September 2020 Jurisdiction: Common Law Before: Cavanagh J Decision: (1) Judgment for the plaintiff for the sum of $1,105,329.50. (2) The defendant is to pay the plaintiff's costs. (3) Should either party seek a variation of that costs order, I grant liberty to apply on three days' notice. Catchwords: EMPLOYMENT AND INDUSTRIAL LAW — Contract — Termination without notice — Whether original written contract applied or had been varied or discharged in ongoing relationship of employment — Objective assessment of parties' mutual intention — Necessity for implied term as to reasonable notice in new contract — Determination of reasonable notice period EMPLOYMENT AND INDUSTRIAL LAW — Contract — Remuneration — Discretionary bonuses — Employee's eligibility for payment of benefits under short and long term incentive plans — Nature and extent of employer's discretion to assess and pay bonuses — Limits on the exercise of a discretion CONTRACTS — Remedies — Damages — Loss of chance — Loss of opportunity to obtain commercial benefit — Effect of reasonable notice period on employee's entitlement to payment of benefits under incentive plans EMPLOYMENT AND INDUSTRIAL LAW — Contract — Repudiation — Acceptance of repudiation — Impracticality for employee to do other than accept repudiation — Party cannot benefit from its own wrong Legislation Cited: Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), s 211 Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), s 119 Cases Cited: ASIC v Healy (2011) 196 FCR 291 Bartlett v Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (2016) 92 NSWLR 639; [2016] NSWCA 30 Byrne v Australian Airlines Ltd (1995) 185 CLR 410; [1995] HCA 24 Commonwealth v Amann Aviation Pty Ltd (1991) 174 CLR 64; [1991] HCA 54 Conway-Cook v Town of Kwinana [2001] WASCA 250 Jones v Dunkel (1959) 101 CLR 298; [1959] HCA 8 Ma v Expeditors International Pty Ltd [2014] NSWSC 859 Maredelanto Compania Naviera SA v Bergbau-Handel GmbH (The Mihalis Angelos) [1971] 1 QB 164 New South Wales Cancer Council v Sarfaty (1992) 28 NSWLR 68 Quinn v Jack Chia (Australia) Ltd [1992] 1 VR 567 Rankin v Marine Power International Pty Ltd [2001] VSC 150 Roderick v Washington H Soul Pattinson & Company Limited [2020] NSWSC 1223 Washington H Soul Pattinson & Company Limited v Roderick [2020] NSWSC 1225 Russell v The Trustees of the Roman Catholic Church for the Archdiocese of Sydney (2007) 69 NSWLR 198; [2007] NSWSC 104 Sanders v Snell (1998) 196 CLR 329; [1998] HCA 64 Sellars v Adelaide Petroleum NL; Poseidon Ltd v Adelaide Petroleum NL (1994) 179 CLR 332; [1994] HCA 4 Shea v TRUenergy Services Pty Ltd (No 6) [2014] FCA 271; 314 ALR 346 Silverbrook Research Pty Ltd v Lindley [2010] NSWCA 357 Spartalis v BMD Constructions Pty Ltd [2014] SASCFC 124 Spartalis v BMD Constructions Pty Ltd (2014) 120 SASR 575; [2014] SASCFC 124 Tallerman and Company Proprietary Limited v Nathan's Merchandise (Victoria) Proprietary Limited (1957) 98 CLR 93 TCN Channel 9 Pty Ltd v Hayden Enterprises Pty Ltd (1989) 16 NSWLR 130 Toll (FGCT) Pty Limited v Alphapharm Pty Limited & Ors (2004) 219 CLR 165; [2004] HCA 52 Westpac Banking Corporation v Wittenberg (2016) 242 FCR 505; [2016] FCAFC 33 Texts Cited: Mark Irving, 'Australian and Canadian approaches to the assessment of the length of reasonable notice' (2015) 28 Australian Journal of Labour Law 159 Category: Principal judgment Parties: Melinda Rose Roderick (Plaintiff) Washington H Soul Pattinson & Company Limited (Defendant) Representation: Counsel: G McNally SC with D Stewart (Plaintiff) D Sulan with J Entwisle (Defendant)