Ken Talbot’s widow’s alleges she is paying for lawyer’s $500m error

Almost a decade after the shock death of Ken Talbot, the mining magnate’s lawyer has been accused of making a $500m mistake as the battle for Talbot’s billion dollar fortune continues.

Businessman Ken Talbot (right) leaves the Magistrates court in Brisbane in 2008. Picture: AAP Image/Dave Hunt

A TRUSTED confidante and lawyer of Ken Talbot is accused of making a $500 million mistake as the legal battle for the Queensland mining magnate’s $1.1 billion fortune continues nearly a decade after his shock death.

Lawyers for Mr Talbot’s widow Amanda last week filed an application in the Supreme Court in Brisbane in the long-running civil dispute over whether lawyers for Mr Talbot and for Mrs Talbot were both negligent in giving advice in relation to his estate.

The application could force Bill Boyd, who is the sole administrator of Mr Talbot’s estate, to take the witness stand to give evidence.

Qld businessman, director of Sundance Resource, Ken Talbot and family. Picture: Sheryl Crofts Photography

Mrs Talbot’s lawyers allege that Mr Boyd, of Brisbane firm Boyd Legal, was negligent in preparing Ken Talbot’s 2002 will and updating his new will, and that a document on Mr Boyd’s file is “not genuine”.

She claims Mr Boyd has also been incompetent as administrator by failing to swiftly sell Talbot’s Mozambique coal assets worth about $500m.

She also alleges Arnold Bloch Liebler (ABL), the top-tier Melbourne-headquartered firm that Mrs Talbot hired for five years after her husbands death in 2010, are liable for her loss of up to $45.9m because 26.3 million shares in Karoon Energy Limited were not sold quickly enough by Mr Boyd before the share price plummeted.

Boyd Legal denies the claims, arguing they always followed Ken Talbot’s instructions and did not breach their duty of care. ABL also denies the claims.

Mr Talbot’s lawyers have told the Supreme Court that their application could slash months or even years, off the length of the legal fight, and save on court costs through possible out-of-court settlement, if they are successful.

The application is seeking a court ruling before trial on whether ABL could have “compelled” Boyd Legal by subpoena in 2011 to let ABL look at emails and legal notes created by Boyd Legal between 2006 and 2009 used to draft Mr Talbot’s new will.

The new will was not executed before Mr Talbot died, so his 2002 will was the only current will.

When Mr Talbot died the estate was worth about $1.1 billion.

Mrs Talbot, who was married to Ken for 15 years, alleges in her claim that had ABL seen the file for the new will, ABL could have advised her to oppose Mr Boyd’s appointment as trustee of Mr Talbot’s estate on June 27, 2012, and she could have sued Mr Boyd for negligence earlier.

Both ABL and Boyd Legal are claiming the emails and notes on the file were secret, and they would not have had to hand them over to ABL back in 2010 or 2011 because they are protected by legal professional privilege.

They also claim that the file did not disclose Mr Boyd was negligent.

The application is the latest round in Mrs Talbot’s lawsuit against Boyd Legal, which she alleges was negligent because the firm was hired by her late husband on about November 23, 2007 to prepare a new will for him, but failed to get it done before he died in a plane crash in the Congo on June 19, 2010.

A new, updated will, would have been better suited to Mr Talbot’s fortune made up of speculative international mining companies and shares in illiquid mining companies, after selling his stake in Macarthur Coal, the claim states.

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Mrs Talbot alleges Mr Boyd should have told her husband between 2007 and 2010 that his estate was so complex it was “beyond” Mr Boyd’s expertise.

The will was difficult to prepare because Mr Talbot owned lavish homes in France, Italy and China, and his assets were owned by several companies, court documents state.

Mrs Talbot’s lawyer Paul Everingham submitted in his affidavit filed in court last Thursday that answers to the legal professional privilege question before a trial “will likely contribute to the prospect of a compromise of” her claim, or “save time and cost by substantially narrowing the issues for trial”.

Amanda and Ken Talbot’s daughters Claudia Elizabeth, 18, and Alexandra Cecile Talbot, 21, from Taringa, have also sued Mr Boyd for damages for breaching his duty of care, causing them to lose millions due to his alleged delays, in separate legal cases.

Mr Boyd and his firm Boyd Legal deny the claims.

Mr Boyd’s solicitor Drew Castley, from Hall and Wilcox, told The Sunday Mail he was unable to comment on the case.

ABL’s lawyer Lucy Williams from K & L Gates told The Sunday Mail that ABL will be opposing Mrs Talbot’s application.

“ABL denies the claims made against it by Mrs Talbot in the proceedings, which will be defended vigorously,” Ms Williams said in an email statement.

The case is due in court for hearing on June 2.