Brett Sutton involved in $50m legal battle over kitchen shutdown
The owner of a suburban catering business shut down by Brett Sutton over an alleged listeria outbreak claims the now-chief health officer destroyed his business and “acted illegally”.
Victoria
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Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton is at the centre of a $50 million legal action over his involvement in shutting down a suburban food business.
Commercial kitchen iCook Foods was closed by the Department of Health after it was blamed for a listeria case in a nursing home in February last year.
Professor Sutton, then the state’s acting chief health officer, signed off on the closure order that shut down the business.
iCook’s owner Ian Cook said his business had been destroyed by Mr Sutton’s actions and he would be seeking a minimum $50 million in damages.
Mr Cook said the order had cost 45 people their jobs and caused the loss of the company’s contracts, all on the basis of false allegations.
Mr Sutton, he said, had acted outside his authority and without following procedures for such closures.
“He’s acted without power. He’s acted illegally. We will show it,” Mr Cook said.
“We lost everything.”
iCook threw out enough food to fill three dumpsters after the order was made.
It’s estimated value was more than $1 million.
Mr Cook said at the time of the closure, potential buyers were set to visit the plant, having intended to purchase a 10 per cent share for $2.5 million.
“That valued the business there and then at $25 million,” he said.
But Mr Cook said he would be pushing for exemplary damages on top of that sum.
A parliamentary inquiry into the closure in August found the closure order was prepared and served on valid grounds and for a proper purpose.
But the same inquiry found the framework in which the decision to impose the order was made and the processes that led to this decision were inadequate.
It also found iCook Foods was not dealt with in a fair or consistent way.
The inquiry also raised the existence of a conflict of interest involving the council’s chief executive, John Bennie, in his role on the board of iCook’s rival Community Chef.
In a Supreme Court writ lawyers for iCook have accused Prof Sutton of being “recklessly indifferent” over the closure.
Shadow Health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier said the ongoing legal action “raises far too many questions about a saga that has seen a reputable business trashed.”
A DHHS spokesperson said the department “makes no apology for putting the health and safety of the community first, especially when it comes to public health”.
“As there are still proceedings before the court it is inappropriate for the department to make any further comment,” he said.
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