Gorman v Parkinson [2009] NSWIRComm 93

Industrial Court of New South Wales

CITATION: Gorman v Parkinson [2009] NSWIRComm 93

Anne Gorman (First Applicant) Corporate Impacts Consulting Pty Ltd (Second Applicant) Barry Parkinson (First Respondent) Julie Parkinson (Second Respondent) Attain Pty Ltd (Third Respondent) PARTIES: Chip McFarlane (Fourth Respondent) Adept Communications Pty Ltd (Fifth Respondent) John Matthews (Sixth Respondent) Illumined Enterprises Pty Ltd (Seventh Respondent) The Institute of Executive Coaching of Australia Pty Ltd (Eighth Respondent) ACN 106 277 758 Pty Ltd (in liquidation) (Ninth Respondent)

FILE NUMBER(S): IRC 3024 of 2005

CORAM: Marks J

CATCHWORDS: S106 UNFAIR CONTRACT PROCEEDINGS - five individuals agreed to participate in a business that had been established by two of them - agreed to utilise corporate structure - relationship became dysfunctional and lead to a loss of willingness to work together - relationship breakdown impacted the business - offer made to applicant to leave - offer rejected - financial position of company was portrayed as worse than it was - company went into administration - old business sold to a company whose shareholders were corporations which represented the interests of the respondents - respondents derived significant advantage - individual applicant excluded - unfair that the agreement not contain a provision which would fairly compensate any of the parties for the value of their interest in the business and their loss of income in the event that a personal relationship broke down - failure to include such a provision enabled the individual respondents to enter a course of action bringing about the exclusion of the applicant - agreement found to be unfair - agreement varied to make provision for payment of compensation - monetary orders to compensate loss as result of unfairness by reason of exclusion from the business