Macpherson + Kelley (M+K) the law firm behind a class action against failed forestry group Great Southern is also considering whether to launch a similar action against Gunns. The company is also filing a class action against Willmott Forests. Source: Brisbane Times
M+K principal Ron Willemsen told BusinessDay the firm was weeks away from filing an additional class action against a third failed forestry group, Willmott Forests, which it is already pursuing in Federal Court proceedings.
The trial of the Great Southern began in the Victorian Supreme Court, filling the room with more than 30 lawyers representing investors in the company’s managed investment schemes, its directors and the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, which lent investors money to put into the schemes.
M+K represents about 2000 of the 22,000 people who, if the class action succeeds, stand to benefit by having their investment returned and the loan used to finance it declared invalid.
The trial, before Justice Clyde Croft, is expected to run until at least early March.
Counsel for the investors, Gary Bigmore, QC, showed the court a 2005 scheme relied on a product disclosure statement. He said the forecasts of wood production given by Great Southern could never be achieved.
Great Southern would never have been able to plant the forecast 250 cubic metres of harvestable wood on each 0.33 hectare woodlot, did not have enough land and would have known at the time of writing the PDS that it would have to ”top-up” its eucalypt forests with timber from another source to deliver investors the projected returns, he said.
Counsel for Young, Paul Santamaria, SC, said Young approved the PDS after getting advice from top-tier law firms including Freehills.
Great Southern, which collapsed in 2009, was the largest player in an Managed Investment Scheme (MIS) industry that has been all but wiped out by a series of company failures.
Timbercorp also collapsed in 2009, with Willmott following in 2010 and Gunns going into administration in late September.
Willemsen said his firm was looking at launching action over Gunns’ 2008 and 2009 managed investment schemes. He said M+K would also file a class action lawsuit over a 2010 forestry scheme run by Willmott.
