Sydney-based lawyers are advertising to find potential litigants in an action that was begun several years ago.
The Banton Group-led class action was launched in 2020 by Doyle’s Farm Produce, John Doyle, Coobool Downs Pastoral Co, Rodney Dunn and Valerie Dunn on behalf of farmers in southern NSW against the MDBA and the Commonwealth of Australia.
The plaintiffs are taking action over low water allocations in the 2017-19 years.
They are also opening the action to persons who conducted irrigated agriculture operations in the NSW Central Murray or the Goulburn-Murray irrigation region using water entitlements.
The Court of Appeal handed down a judgment several years ago in the Banton Group-led class action, finding that the MDBA and the Commonwealth cannot escape potential liability for the alleged mismanagement of the Murray-Darling, by relying on a legal defence in the Civil Liability Act.
As a result of the Court of Appeal judgment, the MDBA and the Commonwealth will be held to the same standard as any other person in a negligence case.
The farmers will have to prove they did not show a reasonable standard of care rather than the higher standard the MDBA and the Commonwealth said should apply.
This was a significant win for the plaintiffs represented by Banton Group as the court found that the MDBA and the Commonwealth could not rely on the significant protections it purported to rely on in its defence.
At the time, Banton Group managing partner Amanda Banton said the finding significantly reduced the issues in dispute and those savings should be reflected in considerable cost savings in finalising this matter for group members.
Part of the plaintiffs’ case against the MDBA is that it should have ensured that the MDBA’s modelling and water accounting practices were updated to the best available data to include, among other matters, the impact of climate change upon the basin.
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