Olympic swimmer Sam Riley demands swim school pay the bill
In the latest instalment of a long-running legal saga, swimming medallist Sam Riley’s company has launched a bid to wind-up a failed Brisbane swimming school business after she successfully defended the school’s $1.4 million lawsuit against her.
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OLYMPIC swimming medallist Sam Riley’s company has launched a bid to wind-up a
failed Brisbane swimming school business after she successfully defended the school’s $1.4 million lawsuit against her.
On June 11, Sam Riley Promotions Pty Ltd (SRP) applied to the Supreme Court in Brisbane for an order winding up Summer Swim Pty Ltd on the grounds of insolvency due to its failure to pay $69,752 requested in a statutory demand dated May 15.
Riley, a mother of three from the Gold Coast and three-time Olympic medallist, has sworn an affidavit to the court in her married name, Samantha Fydler, stating the debt remains due and payable.
SRP has obtained the consent of liquidator William Cotter from Robson Cotter who has told the court he consents to be appointed by the court.
But Summer Swim’s owner Alex Brown, 62, from Brisbane city has hit back at Riley, applying to the Federal Court on June 6 to set aside the demand because it is “genuinely disputed” or Mr Brown’s company has an offsetting claim.
The debt arose after Supreme Court Justice David Boddice ordered Summer Swim to pay Riley’s company $69,752 after he dismissed Mr Brown’s lawsuit following a four-day hearing.
Mr Brown represented himself during the case where he argued Riley’s company was to blame for the failure of the Capalaba school “Capalaba Swim Stars” he bought in September 2014.
Prior to Mr Brown’s purchase, the school traded as a Sam Riley swim school.
Mr Brown was found to have been incapable of properly managing the business when he was struck down with meningitis and was hospitalised in from November 2014 until January 2015, just a few months after he bought the school.
Most of the debt Mr Brown owes to Riley’s company is due to $60,000 in rent owed to the swimming-school’s landlord that Riley’s company paid on Mr Brown’s behalf in 2014-2015.
Summer Swim was also ordered to pay Riley’s unspecified legal costs of defending the claim.
Following the court ruling, Riley told The Courier-Mail she was relieved the horrible experience was over.
The case ran from 2017, when Mr Brown was initially trying to sue for $2.34 million.
The Federal Court hearing is set for June 21. The Supreme Court case is due in court on July 18.
Mr Brown is appealing the Supreme Court decision in the state’s highest court. No date has been set for that hearing.
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