The owner of a luxury Sydney property where Bruce Lehrmann lived rent-free under a deal with the Seven Network has appeared for the first time in a NSW tribunal as she pursues the former Liberal staffer over alleged property damage.
Gaenor Meakes, the owner of the Balgowlah home where the former federal Liberal staffer lived until recently, filed proceedings this year against Lehrmann in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
Gaenor Meakes outside the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal on Thursday, and Bruce Lehrmann in a file photo.Credit: Kate Geraghty / Dominic Lorrimer
Meakes appeared before the tribunal at a preliminary hearing in Sydney on Thursday. Lehrmann was not present.
Lehrmann, who lost a multimillion-dollar defamation case against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson last month, had his rent at the luxury property covered by Seven.
During the defamation case, the Federal Court heard Seven spent about $100,000 paying Lehrmann’s rent for a year to April 2024 under an exclusive interview deal.
Meakes’ dispute with Lehrmann reportedly relates to alleged damage at the northern beaches pad, while a second but linked matter relates to rent.
The property at Balgowlah where Bruce Lehrmann lived rent-free.Credit: Nick Moir
Lehrmann has until May 31 to file any notice of appeal against Justice Michael Lee’s decision to dismiss his defamation suit over an interview with Lehrmann’s former colleague Brittany Higgins, broadcast on Ten’s The Project in 2021 and anchored by Wilkinson. He had claimed the interview defamed him by suggesting he was guilty of sexual assault.
Lee found Ten and Wilkinson had proven to the civil standard – on the balance of probabilities – that Lehrmann raped Higgins in Parliament House in March 2019 when they were working as staffers to Liberal senator Linda Reynolds, who was then the defence industry minister.
Lehrmann raised the ire of neighbours in North Sydney after he decamped from the Balgowlah property to a friend’s home for a short stint in April.
“We’ve been experiencing horrific parties,” one neighbour told this masthead at the time. They singled out the “screeching karaoke” for particular disapprobation.
Lawyers for Lehrmann, Wilkinson and Ten are expected to return to court on Monday for a hearing related to the legal costs of the failed defamation suit.
On May 10, Lee ordered Lehrmann to pay a significant portion of Ten and Lisa Wilkinson’s multimillion-dollar legal costs on an indemnity basis, which covers a higher proportion of a successful party’s legal bills than a standard order.
However, the court has heard Lehrmann has been unemployed since June 2021 and is a law student, and there is a possibility he will be tipped into bankruptcy. It means the costs order is likely to be academic because Lehrmann does not have the financial means to meet it.
On Monday, Lee is expected to set the terms of reference for a referee, who will inquire into and report on specific costs of the dispute, including the costs Ten will be required to cover for Wilkinson.
Given the unlikelihood of Wilkinson recovering any costs from Lehrmann, Ten will pay at least some of its employee’s legal bills under an indemnity covering costs “properly incurred and reasonable in amount”. Wilkinson opted to brief her own lawyers to represent her in the case.
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