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Last week, Banton Group, as the solicitors for the Plaintiffs in the Sydney Light Rail class action, prosecuted a groundbreaking claim, which, if successful, would require the Defendant in those proceedings, Transport for NSW, to pay the for the Plaintiffs’ costs of obtaining litigation funding for the proceedings.   The funding commission claim follows the decision handed down by Justice Cavanagh on 19 July 2023, which found that Transport for NSW’s failure to properly plan and procure the Sydney Light Rail Project (Project) had caused nuisance to the two representative plaintiff businesses, Hunt Leather and Ancio Investments (trading as Khing Thai).   In order to bring the proceedings, the Plaintiffs (as well as other Group Members) entered into funding agreements with litigation funder, International Litigation Partners. Those funding agreements provided that the funder would pay all costs of the proceedings (including taking on all adverse costs risks) and, in exchange, the Plaintiffs agreed that, if they were successful, they would reimburse those costs, plus pay a percentage of their damages to the funder as a ‘funding commission’.   At the hearing on 13 and 14 December 2023, we advanced three key arguments in support of plaintiffs’ claim for the funding commission to be included as a head of damage in the proceedings:   First, compensation in tort law (including the law of nuisance) is intended to put the injured party in the same position as the party would have been, had the tort not been committed. In this case, we argued that this could only be achieved if the Defendant paid the funding commission because otherwise, the Plaintiffs would only receive the damages necessary to put them back into their previous position minus the funding commission.   Second, to be recoverable in tort, damages must be a reasonably foreseeable consequence of the tort. Here, we argued that a funded class action (with the associated funding costs) was also a foreseeable consequence of Transport for NSW’s conduct because (a) Transport for NSW did in fact foresee nuisance claims and a class action arising from the Project as they were recorded as risks in its risk registers for the Project, (b) it is obvious that any nuisance claim or class action brought in relation to the Project would be costly to prosecute and beyond what individual Group Members in the proceedings could afford.   Third, we argued that the rate of funding commission charged by the litigation funder in the proceedings is reasonable, given the significant cost and risks that were involved in bringing a nuisance claim against a government authority in relation to a major piece of public infrastructure.  A decision on the funding commission claim is expected to be handed down in February or March 2024. Amanda Banton Elliott Smith Ross Garland Melissa Morgan (nee Crowley) #classaction #sydneylightrail #legal #law #bantongroup

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