Pickleball stoush to move to appeal as $300k legal costs loom

A judge has whacked a pickleball protagonist out of court in a crushing defeat which could see him served with a hefty legal costs order for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Pickleball player Philip Black, who has launched legal action after being kicked out. Picture: Nigel Hallett

A judge has whacked a pickleball protagonist out of court in a crushing defeat which could see him served with a hefty legal costs order for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

But Gold Coast man Philip Black is vowing to play on in his lengthy battle with pickleball officials, declaring it’s not yet game, set and match despite what appeared to be the final rally in the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

In a case that went from the playing courts to the law courts, Mr Black, a 66-year-old auctioneer and pickleball enthusiast, lobbed a lawsuit on officials in December 2023 after he was allegedly kicked out of his local club and banned from playing.

He alleged he was “unconstitutionally stood down” from the Gold Coast Pickleball Association committee in 2021 after he refused requests to resign and was later threatened with expulsion from the game.

In court documents, Mr Black alleged a fellow committee member and wealthy businesswoman threatened to withdraw her funding for a new court complex unless he resigned “immediately”.

He alleged in the claim that he was the victim of “false witness, bullying, lying, extortion, harassment’ conflicts of interest (and) denial of natural justice and procedural fairness”.

The Gold Coast Pickleball Association, as well as fellow defendants the Pickleball Association of Queensland and Pickleball Australia, vigorously defended the claim.

They lost patience after the self-represented Mr Black was allowed to file six different versions of his statement of claim over the past 12 months in a bid to comply with court rules.

Pickleball player Philip Black. Picture: Nigel Hallett

Lawyers for the defendants recently filed an application for a summary judgement in their favour, a permanent stay on Mr Black’s claim and an order restraining him from any further Supreme Court action without judicial approval.

Justice Michael Copley granted the summary judgement but declined to make the restraining order, noting that Gold Coast Pickleball had admitted that Mr Black’s membership had been invalidly terminated.

In a Facebook video addressing his supporters, Mr Black said he intended to appeal the decision “or pursue whatever other action I can”.

“This is not going away,” he said.

“They tried to shut me right down and to close it (his legal action) off, and it’s not going to happen.”

Mr Black said the defendants had applied for costs “which sounds like it could be in the order of $300,000 or more”.

He said he had spent more than $30,000 on his own legal costs so far and had recently engaged “a very good lawyer” to continue the battle.

“They (pickleball authorities) were hoping for me to run out of heart, run out of everything – it’s not going to happen. I will fight, I will fight to the end, because it’s my reputation.”

Invented in 1965, pickleball – described as a cross between tennis, ping pong and badminton – has become one of the world’s fastest growing sports with about 9 million players in the US and 25,000 in Australia, including thousands in Queensland.

US basketball legend LeBron James owns an American professional pickleball team and there are predictions pickleball could become an Olympic sport.