Qld: Former mining exec loses High Court battle

AAP General News (Australia)
12-07-2007
Qld: Former mining exec loses High Court battle

By Paul Osborne

BRISBANE, Dec 7 AAP - The High Court has rejected a bid by a prominent former Queensland
mining executive to save himself from having to pay legal costs in a long-running court
battle.

Ken Foots, 66, a former director of BHP Utah Coal during the 1980s mining boom, has
been battling an order for him to pay court costs in a case involving his former company
Ensham Resources.

In 2005, after a long fight over the purchase and ownership of a dragline bought for
use at Ensham mine in central Queensland, Supreme Court Justice Richard Chesterman found
Foots had lied to his employer "to take for himself, his family and friends a lucrative
contract which it was his contractual and equitable duty to obtain for his employer".

Justice Chesterman found the dragline - a piece of heavy equipment used in open-cut
mining - had been fraudulently obtained by Southern Cross Mine Management (SCMM), a company
set up by Foots when he was running Ensham.

He found Foots breached his fiduciary duties to Ensham and contravened the Trade Practices Act.

Justice Chesterman later awarded damages of $2.45 million to Ensham.

Two weeks later Foots entered bankruptcy.

In February 2006, Justice Chesterman ordered Foots to pay Ensham's legal costs.

When the Queensland Court of Appeal rejected Foots' appeal against costs, he took his
case to the High Court.

The High Court today ruled by a four-to-one majority to dismiss Foots' appeal.

The court held that the award of costs was "discretionary and arises independently
of the entry of judgment against Mr Foots".

Foots, a former president of the Queensland Mining Council, has been credited as overhauling
work practices in the mining industry in the 1990s and lifting productivity.

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KEYWORD: FOOTS

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