Spring Farm: Business in class action SMEC Testing defending separate legal fight over asbestos

One of the businesses being sued in a sinking homes class action is accused of failing to clean up asbestos and buried cars at another major Sydney site.

The soil testing and remediation company being sued in the Spring Farm sinking homes class action has been accused of failing to clean up asbestos, oil drums and car wrecks at another major Sydney site.

Thoroughbred auctioneers William Inglis & Son alleges it faces a $22 million bill to fix what was left behind by SMEC Testing Services at a Warwick Farm property, according to a document filed in the NSW Supreme Court.

The site William Inglis & Son bought from the ATC. Source: geo.seed.nsw.gov.au

According to Inglis’s court document, there was an agreement that the club would remediate the area “by utilising the specialist contamination assessment and remedial services of … SMEC”.

But Inglis alleges that after starting to build stables on the site, it discovered undisclosed contamination at the eastern end. Inglis said it also learned that club employees had a name for the problem patch: “Robbo’s Tip”.

When Inglis’s plans for Warwick Farm are compared to current images from Google Earth, it can be seen that a proposed manager’s residence, hay store and other buildings have not been built.

Inglis is making a claim against the ATC for “breach of contract, in negligence, and for misleading or deceptive conduct”.

Inglis is also suing SMEC, which it accuses of negligence and misleading or deceptive conduct, alleging there was a failure to ensure all the land was properly assessed for contamination and then remediated.

SMEC disputes Inglis’s claims. A court document filed for SMEC says only the ATC was entitled to rely on its site report and “that the presence of asbestos and fill materials was identified”.

SMEC also says it did not owe a duty of care to Inglis and that the statutory limitation of actions has expired.

The ATC says the statutory limitation of actions has expired in a court document denying Inglis’s claims.

The ATC added that Inglis “was aware of the presence of the material it now describes as contamination” since 2009 and failed to take reasonable care.

Last year, SMEC sold its goodwill and intellectual property assets to STS Geotechnics for $63,000. SMEC was then placed in voluntary liquidation.

Inglis has lodged a proof of debt with SMEC’s liquidator for $33.3m.

SMEC and Phil Hayward, a director of SMEC Testing Services since 2002, did not respond to questions about the Inglis proceedings. Inglis and the ATC also made no comment.

SMEC said it could not comment on the Spring Farm class action because “we have not been served any formal notice of the proceedings”.

The Spring Farm case was mentioned in the NSW Supreme Court on Friday and on May 12. SMEC is one of four respondents to that action; the others are Camden Council, developer the Cornish Group, and SMEC’s parent company, SMECTS Holdings.

Originally published as Spring Farm: Business in class action SMEC Testing defending separate legal fight over asbestos