Class action to seek Brisbane flood compensation

LAWYERS and their corporate backers will launch a major court action next year seeking compensation for victims of the devastating 2011 Brisbane floods.

Wivenhoe Dam

LAWYERS and their corporate backers will stump up millions of dollars in a major court action to seek compensation for victims of the devastating January 2011 Brisbane floods, which were caused largely by massive releases from the Wivenhoe Dam.

Litigation funder IMF Australia and Maurice Blackburn Lawyers announced today to the Australian Securities Exchange that “all conditions had been met for funding of the class action to proceed”.

The law firm has previously described it as having the potential to be Australia's largest class action.

Investigations and evidence reported by The Australian led to a royal commission-style inquiry in Queensland returning to public hearings and rewriting key parts of its final report, leading to findings in early 2012 that the operators of Wivenhoe Dam had breached the operating manual and misled the inquiry.

IMF Australia executive director, John Walker, said today that extensive modelling of the 2011 flood has identified the extent of the unnecessary flooding caused by the negligent operation of Wivenhoe and Somerset dams.

“The modelling gives IMF the certainty it needs to commit the millions of dollars required for this claim to proceed,” Mr Walker said.

“It has been a long road to this point but we are very pleased now to be able to say the action will go ahead,” he said.

Experts commissioned in the United States are understood to have found through detailed modelling that the overwhelming majority of properties flooded in the most expensive disaster in Queensland's history should not have been affected if the dam had been operated prudently.

The compensation bill could be several billion dollars, due to the thousands of properties affected.

However insurers for the Wivenhoe Dam would have their liability capped below that in the event of a successful case by flood victims. This means the Queensland government would need to cover the rest of any successful action for damages.

The engineers permitted the dam to store vast amounts of water, which because of concerns about the structural integrity of the dam was then released in a sudden and unprecedented volume that caused most of the flooding.

The operators of the Queensland government-owned dam had been forewarned that the La Nina-inspired wet season, which caused widespread flooding, would be one of the worst ever.

However the operators did not take precautionary action by lowering the dam's levels to give it a buffer large enough for the forecast inflow.

The engineers were operating the wrong strategy for the dam, but did not disclose this in their evidence to the inquiry, which made strong findings against three of the four men. A subsequent Crime and Misconduct Commission review determined there would be no prosecutions, and the engineers have always strenuously denied any wrongdoing.

The action is now expected to be filed in early 2014 with a February 28 deadline set for people to sign up.

Maurice Blackburn Principal Damian Scattini said community meetings would be held to ensure registrants were properly informed of the next steps in the class action.

“We take the privilege of representing residents and businesses impacted by the 2011 flood very seriously - we have put many months of work into this case and we're now ready to run this case and file a lawsuit after we give flood victims a final opportunity to join the claim,” Mr Scattini said.

“The statement of claim for the class action will be filed at the earliest opportunity next year, but we first want to provide people registered in the class action with case updates as we have always promised to do,” Mr Scattini said.

“There will be a final opportunity for residents and businesses not yet signed up to the action to do so before February 28, 2014. In order to participate in the class action, you must sign up before this date. The claim will be filed following this deadline.

“Anyone who was inundated and suffered loss during the 2011 flood of the Brisbane and Bremer Rivers may have a claim and should contact IMF to find out whether their property was unnecessarily flooded. For most people, this was a flood that should not have happened if Wivenhoe and Somerset Dams had been operated properly.”

Premier Campbell Newman wouldn't say if the government would consider settling.

He instead offered a warning.

“Everybody is entitled to launch a class action in this country, that's what democracy and the legal system is all about,” Mr Newman said.

“I just say to them, I hope they have got a very clear deal with the legal firms involved and I'd hate to see any payout to them, if that ultimately happened, being gobbled up in legal fees.”