Iconic Darwin developer on the hook for costs in years’ long legal saga

Darwin construction titan Halikos is on the hook for a potentially eye watering legal bill after its dispute with gas exporter Inpex finally reached its denouement in the Supreme Court.

DARWIN construction titan Halikos is on the hook for a potentially eye watering legal bill after its dispute with gas exporter Inpex finally reached its denouement in the Supreme Court.

The property developer and hospitality giant sued Inpex over what it claimed was a broken handshake agreement that would have seen the Japanese resources behemoth house its workers in Halikos’s new H105 Hotel for 15 years.

After a trial in 2017 went the way of Inpex and a failed appeal of that decision, Justice Judith Kelly has now ordered Halikos to pay its rival’s legal bills dating back to the beginning of the drawn out legal saga.

The fallout for the iconic Territory brand remains to be seen and Halikos managing director, Shane Dignan, did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday.

But following the dismissal of the company’s appeal in 2020, Mr Dignan said the stoush had already cost local jobs.

“Coupled with what is happening at the moment with Covid-19, it has meant that some hospitality employees have been stood down,” he said.

“This decision has taken years to get to and we feel that justice has not been served as we always acted in good faith during all our dealings with Inpex.”

At the time, Mr Dignan said the employees had been stood down “until we receive further clarification from government as to when we can commence operations in our hospitality division again”.

An artist’s impression of the planned hotel Halikos said hinged on its deal with Inpex.

“We are a proud local company employing more than 300 Territorians in excess of 30 years now,” he said.

“Our main priority is keeping our team and community safe and we will try to limit stand-downs as much as possible through this tough time.”

Justice Kelly ruled against Halikos’ multimillion-dollar claim in August 2018, saying she did not accept that Halikos had told Inpex it would only go ahead with the development of H105 if it had a pre-existing commitment from the other company.

Halikos appealed the decision but Court of Appeal justices Stephen Southwood, Graham Hiley and Trevor Riley backed Justice Kelly’s findings.

“In our opinion, the reasons provided by the trial judge set out a compelling basis for her honour to reject the various claims made by Halikos in the proceedings below,” they wrote.

“We have conducted a detailed review of the evidence given at first instance, including the documentary material, and have not been persuaded that the findings of the trial judge were in error.”

Last week, Justice Kelly ruled Halikos was responsible for the “costs of and incidental to the proceeding”.