Abigroup refused holding injunction on Port River Expressway
Abigroup Construction Pty Ltd has lost both the first and now also the second rounds in its attempts to block the expert determination procedure, in which US engineers Hardesty & Hanover International LLP is seeking payment of its fees for its work on the Port River Expressway project.
In the Supreme Court of South Australia on 6th February 2008, Judge Lunn identified that the nominated expert has already made a determination in favour of Hardesty & Hanover that he has jurisdiction to make the determination sought by Hardesty & Hanover for payment of its fees. Abigroup sought a holding junction to freeze the process and thus avoid the necessity for Abigroup to put in any written submissions in the expert determination.
Counsel for Hardesty & Hanover, Robert Fenwick Elliott, submitted that Abigroup was not entitled to the injunction, did not deserve the injunction, did not need the injunction, and that the grant of an injunction, even for a single day, would be injurious to the public interest. In refusing the holding injunction, the Court indicated that it was not prepared to hold up the agreed contractual procedures. The application has been listed for an all day hearing in open court in Court 7 of the Supreme Court in Adelaide, starting at 10:00am on Tuesday, 12 February 2008.