Wirrina Cove marina operator Stephen Marks fails to obey court order to file District Court documents, blames issues with binding papers
A MARINA operator at the centre of a class action has blamed “issues” with binding papers and lack of legal representation for ignoring a court-imposed deadline to file documents.
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A MARINA operator at the centre of a class-action has blamed “issues” with binding papers and lack of legal representation for ignoring a court-imposed deadline to file documents.
The District Court Judge Patrick O’Sullivan last week chastised Marina St Vincent operator Stephen Marks for failing to obey an order by Chief Judge Michael Evans’ to file an affidavit as agreed, according to a transcript of proceedings.
Berth owners at the Wirrina Cove marina, on the Fleurieu Peninsula, are suing Mr Marks’ and his company New Wave Aerospace over allegedly failing to account for more than $1 million in spending.
The matter is scheduled for a seven-day trial in October.
Mr Marks — who has been unrepresented since last Tuesday when Chief Judge Evans granted his lawyers leave to remove themselves from the case — apologised for not having filed the affidavit.
“To be honest, I’ve put a lot of effort into this as you can appreciate there’s quite a few pages, a lot of research to do given I haven’t been representing myself all the way,” he said.
“I thought I’d bring the affidavit here and that’s what I was going to do, this afternoon, when I got here, is put them (affidavits) downstairs and register them, I just ran out of time with issues with the binding.”
He said he would like to be represented as he was a “fish out of water”
Judge O’Sullivan, in reminding Mr Marks’ of his legal obligations, referred to a transcript of the hearing before Chief Judge Evans in which Mr Marks had “indicated” the affidavit was “probably 90 per cent complete”.
“I don’t need to say more about it, I just remind you that if a court makes an order it expects it to be complied with,” he said.
Mr Marks, who told the court he was a “fish out of water”, said the only reason he was not represented was that berth owners had not paid money for marina maintenance.
Peter Pedler, acting for the berth owners, said he would not oppose Mr Marks’ application, to be heard today, to represent his company at trial.
Judge O’Sullivan gave Mr Marks until September 21 to disclose further financial statements, records and documents relating to the operation and management of the marina.