John Godwin’s Port Ballidu sues Mullins Lawyers for $6m

The relationship between two prominent Brisbane families has been torn apart, with one now suing the other for over $6 million.

John Godwin claims he has lost his life savings, including the proceeds of his home. Picture: Zak Simmonds

A bitter feud has erupted between two prominent Brisbane families, with a small one-man company suing a large law firm for over $6 million in damages.

Port Ballidu – run by well-connected businessman John Godwin – has begun proceedings in the Supreme Court against Mullins Lawyers after protracted legal wrangling and years of failed mediation.

The company claims Mullins’ alleged negligence and breach of duties has cost Mr Godwin, its sole director, his life savings, including the proceeds from the sale of his family home, and more than 14 years of emotional stress.

Mullins Lawyers denies the allegations and is defending the claim.

According to documents filed in April 2022, Port Ballidu engaged Mullins Lawyers in 2008 to handle a business property matter because to Mr Godwin “the principles of Mullins were well-known to me as longstanding family friends and who I trusted absolutely”.

The Godwin and Mullins extended families have been close since the 1940s, including through their strong ties to Villanova, a Catholic boys’ school at Coorparoo, which Mr Godwin attended and where he later became a popular teacher.

In his affidavit Mr Godwin, a Camp Hill father of four, claims that in late 2013 two Mullins partners admitted to making serious mistakes in the 2008 case.

“We (Mullins) are going to have to stand down and you will have to sue us,” Mr Godwin claims he was told by one partner.

Mr Godwin also claims in his affidavit that the firm applied significant pressure on him to personally pay its outstanding barrister fees.

He claims when he asked the firm to repay the money he had paid it, Mullins refused.

In late 2016, Mullins Lawyers, via its insurer, brought strikeout proceedings on the basis the firm was now not admitting negligence and was protected by advocates’ immunity, according to court documents obtained by The Sunday Mail.

In May 2017, Justice Dalton found advocates’ immunity – which serves to protect lawyers from actions intimately connected to court proceedings – did not apply.

Mr Godwin’s 2016 statement of claim alleges the breaches of duties by Mullins Lawyers involve failure to provide advice on specific matters and that a prudent solicitor acting reasonably would not have so failed.

Concerns were also raised over the insurer, Lexon Insurance, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Queensland Law Society, incorporated and regulated in Singapore, and which provides professional indemnity insurance to the legal profession.

Mr Godwin, who is being represented pro bono by Creagh Weightman lawyers, this week declined to comment specifically on the case but said he was “deeply disappointed” it had been so protracted and hoped the “long-running financial loss and harm caused to him and his family would be rectified”.

Mr Godwin now runs a not-for-profit organisation offering wellbeing mentoring programs to disadvantaged people, including in some of Queensland’s toughest schools. He also oversees a charity that builds houses for the homeless.

Paul Lutvey, a partner with Mullins Lawyers, did not answer The Sunday Mail’s questions as to why Mr Godwin was allegedly pressured to pay barrister fees for the case, or respond to the claims in Mr Godwin’s affidavit that Mullins Lawyers admitted it had made serious mistakes in the case.

In an email response on Friday, Mr Lutvey said Mullins Lawyers “has filed a comprehensive defence setting out its position on the allegations”.

“The position of Mullins Lawyers in relation to the allegations is reflected in the material filed in the Supreme Court,” he said.

“Port Ballidu has not pursued the case against Mullins Lawyers for more than four years.

“The current position is that the above case cannot proceed against Mullins Lawyers without leave of the Supreme Court.”