Matthew Trim’s $1.65m Regent Arcade sales commission ‘fanciful’, it will be argued

The Ginos Group avoided a call to provide monthly bank statements to Matthew Trim in the stoush over a $1.65 million sales commission.

George and Zis Ginos from the Ginos Group.

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Commercial property agent Matthew Trim’s claim to be owed a $1.65 million commission on the sale of Regent Arcade is so large as to be “fanciful”, and expert evidence will be called to back that up, the lawyer for Adelaide landlords the Ginos Group told a Supreme Court hearing.

Brendon Roberts SC, acting for Ginos Group company Malabe Pty Ltd, successfully fended off a bid by Mr Trim’s legal team to have the company provide monthly evidence - in the form of a bank statement - that it had the $1.65 million in dispute in a bank account.

The Court heard that the Ginos Group had given an undertaking that the money would reside in a bank account, but Mr Trim’s legal team argued they should be given a bank statement monthly to back this up.

The dispute is over Mr Trim’s claim to have facilitated the $48.5 million sale of Regent Arcade, previously owned by the Ginos Group, for which he is claiming to be owed a $1.65 million commission.

The Ginos Group has argued in defence documents lodged with the Court that it was dealing with Commercial Adelaide director Remo Russo - a colleague of Mr Trim - and that no contract with Mr Trim was ever enacted.

Mr Roberts told the Court that the application by Griffins Lawyers, acting for Mr Trim, was “a cynical application that is designed to vex’’.

“It’s a cynical claim which should be regarded entirely as tactical,’’ Mr Roberts said.

Mr Roberts said the 3 per cent commission being claimed to have been agreed upon by Mr Trim was “fanciful’’ and he would draw on expert evidence to show this was the case.

Judge Katrina Bochner dismissed the application to have bank statements furnished to Mr Trim on a monthly basis, saying there was no evidence tendered to the court that the Ginos Group would not comply with its undertaking to hold the money at issue.

Mr Trim’s statement of claim says that at a meeting at Shobosho restaurant in October 2019, he told the Ginos Group he had an interested buyer for Regent Arcade, and would charge them 3 per cent of the sale price given their desire to sell it for about $50 million, which he thought was “well above the market value.’’.

Matthew Trim during his time as a restaurateur.

Mr Trim says George Ginos “agreed ... to engage the applicant as sales agent’’ with further terms and conditions to be determined later. Mr Trim says the Ginos Group demonstrated “by its conduct’’ that it had a contract with him, including by giving him details of tenants and concept plans for a hotel to be developed on the site.

Mr Trim says he gave the Ginos Group a “written agency agreement’’ in November last year, and Zis Ginos, the head of the group, “agreed to pay the agreed commission’’ and said he would “read through the written agreement before signing it’’. Regent Arcade was sold to Wingpower Holdings in March for $48.5m, but Mr Trim says he has not been paid his commission.

In its defence documents, the Ginos Group denies that George Ginos or Malabe “ever instructed the applicant’’ and says “that as a matter of business custom, contracts for agency services are in writing’’.

The Ginos Group owns a number of properties around Adelaide including 10 properties on Leigh St and a substantial property on neighbouring Peel St.

The matter is scheduled to return to court in mid-November.

Originally published as Matthew Trim’s $1.65m Regent Arcade sales commission ‘fanciful’, it will be argued