Katherina Grollo being sued by mother in bitter family dispute
One of Melbourne’s biggest construction tycoons, Daniel Grollo, has found himself in the middle of a bitter family property dispute, involving his wife and her mother.
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Melbourne construction tycoon Daniel Grollo is embroiled in a bitter $1.85 million family property dispute.
The Grocon boss’ wife Katherina is being sued by her mother Kathleen O’Toole in Victoria’s Supreme Court.
Ms O’Toole claims, in court documents filed this month, that her daughter, who goes by the name Kat, had duped her of the profits of a sale of her home.
She says, in the statement of claim, that she profited almost $240,000 when selling her Vermont property in late 2000.
While looking for another home, she says she moved in with the Grollos — one of Melbourne’s wealthiest families — at their home in Brunswick.
When she later found a property in Doncaster she wanted to purchase, she says Mr Grollo attended the auction to buy it on her behalf.
She says she then transferred the profits from her Vermont property sale to her daughter to go towards the Doncaster purchase.
But it was Ms Grollo who was then listed as the sole owner.
Ms O’Toole lived in the Doncaster unit on Highview Dr for 11 years and “made all payments in respect of maintenance and upkeep”, she claims, before the Grollos asked her to move to another property in Toorak in 2012.
The Toorak property was owned by the company Twenty Twenty2, which the Grollos controlled.
The Doncaster property was sold in 2014, but Ms O’Toole claims her daughter “breached the trust” between them by not giving her a share of the profits.
She was then “evicted” from the Toorak property in 2016, she says.
“The plaintiff (Ms O’Toole) has suffered detriment as a result of the defendant (Ms Grollo) resiling from the promise,” the statement of claim says.
Ms O’Toole, who now lives back in Birmingham in the UK, where Ms Grollo was born, wants the Grollos to pay her $1.85 million, plus $20,000 for legal costs, to end the legal fight.
The stoush is the latest legal battle for Mr Grollo, 49, whose company Grocon has built the iconic Eureka Tower in Melbourne, the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games village, and the ANZ Tower in Sydney.
He wound up two of his companies last month following a $28 million dispute with property developer Dexus over claims of an unpaid lease on a Brisbane property.
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He has also been in legal battles with The GPT Group and APN Property Group.
In 2000, he took the reins from his father, Bruno, to oversee the construction empire, which was founded by his late grandfather, Luigi, in the 1950s.
Calls to Mr Grollo and Grocon offices in New York and Melbourne were not answered.