Stephen Lee and Jason Dudley recently appeared, successfully, for the Appellant in Allen v G Developments Pty Ltd & Anor [2019] QCA 287, where the Respondents were ordered to pay interest at 25% per annum on outstanding principal under a loan agreement. On 5 June 2020, Stephen and Jason appeared on the borrower’s application for special leave to appeal to the High Court, which was dismissed with costs.
That case concerned a loan of $1M for a term of one year. The borrower failed to repay the principal for 8 years, but claimed it only had to pay interest for one year. The QCA rejected that argument, holding that the courts are entitled to approach the construction of ambiguous commercial contracts according to the presumption that the parties intended a commercial result which produces commercial sense
