Australia Asia Pacific v Australian Frontier Holiday [2000] NSWSC 340

New South Wales Supreme Court

CITATION : Australia Asia Pacific v Australian Frontier Holiday [2000] NSWSC 340 CURRENT JURISDICTION: Equity FILE NUMBER(S) : SC 1788 of 2000 HEARING DATE(S) : 10, 11, 12 April 2000 JUDGMENT DATE : 20 April 2000

Australia Asia Pacific Hotels Limited (Plaintiff) Australian Frontier Operations Pty Limited (First Defendant) PARTIES : Katherine Frontier Motel Pty Limited (Second Defendant) Oasis Frontier Resort Pty Limited (Third Defendant) International Hotel Group Australia Limited (Fourth Defendant) Darwin Frontier Hotel Pty Limited (Fifth Defendant) JUDGMENT OF : Windeyer J at 1

COUNSEL : Mr D Studdy (Plaintiff) Mr D Officer QC with him Mr D. Warren (Defendants) SOLICITORS : Gilbert & Tobin (Plaintiff) Teys McMahon (Defendants) CATCHWORDS : CONTRACT - whether termination of hotel management control was valid - term in contract empowering the defendant to terminate if it could not be demonstrated to its reasonable satisfaction that the plaintiff was of the same or better standard of operator as the operating company whose shares it acquired - required to act reasonably - opportunity to assuage doubts so as to retain benefit of contract - ESTOPPEL - whether estopped by conduct - no evidence of relevance CASES CITED : Service Station Association Limited v Berg Bennett and Associates Pty Limited (1993) 45 FCR 84 DECISION : See paragraph 25

1 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES EQUITY DIVISION

WINDEYER J

THURSDAY 20 APRIL 2000

1788/2000 AUSTRALIA ASIA PACIFIC HOTELS LIMITED v AUSTRALIAN FRONTIER HOLIDAY OPERATIONS PTY LIMITED & ORS