John Woodman’s lawsuit against IBAC thrown out of court

A lawsuit by controversial developer John Woodman against Victoria’s anti-corruption watchdog has been thrown out of court as he was ordered to pay legal costs.

A lawsuit by John Woodman against Victoria’s anti-corruption watchdog has been thrown out of court, with the colourful developer also ordered to pay legal costs.

Mr Woodman sued the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission in the Supreme Court claiming he suffered reputational damage when he was examined over six days of public hearings as part of an inquiry into corrupt property deals involving Casey councillors.

He later filed a notice of discontinuance and sought a court order to drop the lawsuit because the claim was “obsolete” as his reputation had already been damaged when the final report of IBAC’s Operation Sandon investigation was tabled in parliament.

IBAC opposed the bid at a hearing in January, arguing the move would prejudice the anti-corruption agency.

A lawsuit by John Woodman against IBAC has been thrown out of court. Picture: Aaron Francis

They instead sought a summary dismissal, throwing the case out, on the grounds they did not owe a duty of care to Mr Woodman.

Justice Jacinta Forbes on Wednesday ruled in favour of IBAC, granting the summary dismissal and ordering Mr Woodman pay their legal costs.

In his statement of claim, Mr Woodman said IBAC had denied him procedural fairness when they failed to notify or allowed him to respond to their decision to host public hearings.

“In the course of his examination, the plaintiff was asked many questions that portrayed him as being complicit in possible corrupt conduct,” it stated.

Mr Woodman had previously lost a court bid to block the release of the report which was hundreds of pages long and mentioned him 1450 times.

It found Mr Woodman paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to suburban councillors in exchange for support of his projects.