Down to Earth Spring Water & Ors v Mitrofanis Demetrius Nikolaidis & Leon Nikolaidis trading as MD Mikolaidis & Co [2002] NSWSC 64

New South Wales Supreme Court

CITATION : Down to Earth Spring Water & Ors v Mitrofanis Demetrius Nikolaidis & Leon Nikolaidis trading as MD Mikolaidis & Co [2002] NSWSC 64 FILE NUMBER(S) : SC 20928/97 HEARING DATE(S) : 29/1/02, 30/1/02, 31/1/02, 1/2/02, 8/2/02, 11/2/02, 12/2/02, 13/2/02, 14/2/02 JUDGMENT DATE : 3 May 2002

Down to Earth Spring Water (1st Plaintiff) PARTIES : Nilbrook Pty Limited (2nd Plainitff) Four MJ Pty Limited (3rd Plaintiff) Mitrofanis Demetrius Nikolaidis & Leon Nikolaidis Trading as MD Nikolaidis & Co (Defendant) JUDGMENT OF : Bell J at 1

COUNSEL : Mr T. A. Alexis / Ms E. Champion (1st, 2nd, 3rd Plaintiffs) Mr P. M. Wood / Mr M.A. Jones (Defendant) SOLICITORS : Hazan Hollander (1st, 2nd, 3rd Plaintiffs) Henry Davis York (Defendant) LEGISLATION CITED : Supreme Court Rules 1970 DECISION : Pursuant to Pt 31 r 2 SCR determination of separate questions - breach of retainer and duty of care established

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COMMON LAW 20928/97 BELL J

Friday 3 May 2002 DOWN TO EARTH SPRING WATER PTY LTD & Ors v MITROFANIS DEMETRIUS NIKOLAIDIS & LEON NIKOLAIDIS trading as MD Nikolaidis & Co

Judgment BELL J: 1 The first plaintiff, Down to Earth Spring Water Pty Limited ("DTE") was in 1990 carrying on the business of producing and selling bottled water to the domestic market in Sydney. At the material time DTE had four directors; John Preston, Gary Smith, Adam Loel and Jason Paris ("the directors"). The last mentioned three directors each held 25 percent of the shares in DTE. The remaining 25 percent of the shares in DTE were held by the second plaintiff, Nilbrook Pty Limited ("Nilbrook"). John Preston was at all material times a director and shareholder of Nilbrook and of the third plaintiff, Four MJ Pty Limited ("Four MJ"). Four MJ was the owner of premises at 117 – 119 Silverwater Road, Silverwater, from which DTE conducted its business.