Mirvac loses High Court appeal over cancelled Tennyson Reach contract
Mirvac went to the High Court last Friday but lost its appeal against an earlier Queensland Court of Appeal decision that ruled a buyer could cancel a contract to purchase a multimillion-dollar Tennyson apartment after the January 2011 flood.
Maris Anne Dunworth, wife of former rugby union international David Dunworth, signed an agreement in 2007 to buy the unit off the plan for $2,155,000 in a proposed building at Tennyson.
Before completion of the contract, the by-then completed building was flooded on January 13, necessitating major restoration work that would delay possession.
Dunworth, who argued for the right to cancel the contract because floodwaters that inundated the unit rendered it uninhabitable, had rejected Mirvac's offer to restore the unit.
A Supreme Court judge ruled against her and gave Mirvac the right to complete the work.
But the Queensland Court of Appeal overturned the earlier decision and ruled she had validly rescinded her contract.
At the time of the Court of Appeal decision, Andrea Blake, a senior lecturer at QUT's faculty of built environment and engineering, said the case potentially had far-reaching implications, as it "absolutely set a precedent", rendering any other contracts that were made before the floods vulnerable.
But Real Estate Institute of Queensland managing director Dan Molloy said the implications of the decision were limited because neither party had disputed the key point that the apartment was uninhabitable after the flood.
Friday’s application to the High Court for special leave to appeal was refused.
Tennyson Reach is an 11-hectare north facing site on the Brisbane River, five kilometres south of Brisbane. It’s the redevelopment of the disused Tennyson Power Station site.
